


The Puppet Master

by gracieluu



Series: There Are No Strings [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Daredevil (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, F/M, Gen, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-26 01:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10776945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracieluu/pseuds/gracieluu
Summary: It's been two months since Avery Gudrun moved back to New Mexico to get a handle on her powers. Two months since the Chitauri. Two months for things to get back to normal. During that time, everyone seems to have settled into their new reality. A new team, a new place to live, and a new set of problems that come with a bunch of superheros sharing one floor. But just when they think they've finally gotten some downtime, a new crop of villains pops up, each one more seemingly connected to the Avengers than the last.The question is, who's pulling the strings?





	1. Chapter 1

_: 2 months later :_

_5:27 a.m., somewhere in New Mexico_

The first thing Avery did every morning, as a matter of necessity, was water her succulents and check the morning classifieds for suspicious deaths. Every morning for the last two months, she dribbled water over her little plants and perused the newspaper without any sense of urgency whatsoever. On the morning of July 2th, she thought she would so the same. Instead, she woke up to the sound of her door slamming open.

"This is depressing," The voice said, bouncing down the empty hallway towards Avery's open bedroom door. "I see she still has her nutria."

"Ooh that's a good one. I was thinking capybara." A long pause, then a small laugh. "No, I didn't think so."

Avery groaned and rolled over, eyes foggy and limbs heavy. She reached sideways, fingers probing her bed as she looked for Mandu. He liked to sleep on his own pillow, pressed up next to her as close as possible. When she touched nothing but cold sheets, she blinked, realizing that she hadn't made up the voices currently in her living room. Her muscles instantly tensed as she sat up in bed, hand hovering over the cellphone that sat, mostly unused, on her nightstand. She entertained calling the police for a moment, before she realized that would involve letting them now that her little oasis existed.

Call her dramatic, but she would rather die than let anybody but Steve and Tony know where she was.

She looked around her room, trying to find something that she could use as a weapon before she set her sights her pair of knitting needles. Perfect for goring and easy to clean.

The brutality of that thought startled her, making her realize that, perhaps, her habit of cataloging weird deaths around New Mexico might have gotten to her.

She jumped out of bed, groaning when she got tangled in the ridiculous amount of blankets she slept under before she barely moved two feet. She slammed face-first into the carpet, legs still wrapped up like a swaddled baby.

"Did you hear that?"

"Bedroom," The second voice said, sounding vaguely familiar to Avery in her panicked state.

Avery inched across the floor like a worm and grabbed her needle. She pressed her back against her bedroom door and leaned sideways, peering out into the dark hallway. The people moved towards her, faces obscured by the dim light of pre-dawn. She took a deep breath and leaned back, pulling herself up the wall and into a standing position.

"We should have called first."

"And ruin the surprise?"

"She's going to be pissed. She looks like she's made quite a living as a self-proclaimed plant hermit."

"Do you think she's been growing weed?"

"God I hope so."

They both laughed.

Avery scowled at the needle in her hand as she pulled it close to her chest, fingers flexing. The footsteps moved closer and Avery prepared herself.

"Wakey, wak…"

Avery yelled and jumped at the person standing just outside her doorframe. For one glorious moment it seemed to work, until her feet got caught in the blanket still wrapped around her legs and she stumbled forward and ran into the person's chest. The other person grabbed her arm and twisted it back, forcing her to drop the needle with the sheer strength of the grip.

"Hi Avery."

Avery looked up.

Clint smiled at her and stepped back, holding out his arm to help her into a standing position. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that she had just tried to stab him with a knitting needle, but then again, he had shown up at her house uninvited and unannounced at just past five in the morning. Natasha, who up until that moment had kept her vice grip on Avery's arm, stepped back and leaned against the wall, smirking at the pair of them.

"You've definitely embraced the isolation, Avery."

Avery looked between them both, not sure if she liked the idea of why they were there, before she decided that the first thing she needed was a strong cup of coffee. Perhaps two.

She kicked the blanket off her legs and pushed past them, grumbling to herself incoherently as she walked towards her small kitchen. They both followed, clearly unbothered by the annoyance she felt. She walked over to her coffee machine and opened it, stuffing the grounds in in an almost savage manner. She wanted them to know how she felt, at least for a moment, before she actually greeted them properly and with the right amount of enthusiasm. Truly, she was happy to see them.

Two months on her own had been therapeutic, calming and nurturing in the exact way she needed, but the isolation had started to manifest itself in weird ways.

For one thing, she had developed a bit of a Georgia O'Keeffe level of weird when it came to her recently acquired hobby of painting. It was shittier than even she cared to admit, but all her attempts were now displayed proudly on every square inch of wall space she had in the tiny two bedroom house. Including, embarrassingly enough, her pathetic attempt at painting all her teammates.

Second, she had acquired a rather large collection of house plants, varying from the normal, like the succulents, to the bizarre, like her massive Venus flytrap.

And finally, she had taken to spending a great amount of time, much more than she cared to admit, standing in the desert completely naked.

She supposed she should be thankful she had fallen asleep in her large t-shirt.

"Do you guys want coffee?" Avery asked blearily, turning away from the pot to look at the other two. Clint nodded, while Natasha shook her head as she took a seat at the small kitchen table. Avery blushed and rushed over, snatching away her latest project before Natasha could see it. "Anyway, nice to see you both."

"Yeah, we can tell you're positively over the moon. Did you knit all these pot covers?" Clint asked, pointing at the bright green, large knit plant cozy.

"I did. I thought I'd start selling them," She said, not entirely sarcastic. "If I decided to stay, of course."

"How close are you to the border?" Natasha asked, looking around the small space with interest. She eyed the paintings on the kitchen wall with a slight smirk before she looked back at Avery. "Ten minutes? Twenty?"

"About thirty-five."

"Have you been crossing?"

"Most days," Avery said with a shrug, moving over to her fridge.

"You've been flagged. You shouldn't have been able to cross."

"I don't have a passport." She eyed the 2 day old pizza for a moment, debating with herself at the thought of eating something like that so early, before she shrugged and grabbed it.

"I don't want to know," Natasha said, sitting back in her chair with a look that was both annoyed and impressed. Avery dropped the pizza in front of her and went back to the coffee, pulling out two mugs. "How have you been?"

"Good. I've been really embracing the whole dessert lifestyle. I haven't had to wear a bra in 2 months, so that's also a bonus," She paused, smirking to herself. "Also, I haven't caused any disasters or blown up any multimillion dollar labs. I've been good."

"Must be all the heat," Clint mused, dropping into the seat opposite Natasha. He opened the box of pizza and took a slice, biting into it before he realized it was covered in anchovies and pineapples. "God, what is this crap?"

"A delicacy." Avery took the slice out of his hand and ate it happily. "So, why are you guys here?"

"Just checking in. What have you been up to?"

Avery bit her lip and swallowed the bite of food she had in her mouth, mulling over the question for a moment before she gave them her answer. She dropped the slice and wiped her hands on her shirt, closing the box to stall for a bit longer. She wiped her mouth and smoothed her hair, fingers catching in the tangles. "Can I show you something?"

They shared a glance, but said nothing, both standing up to follow after her as she walked out towards her front door.

The heat assaulted her as soon as she opened the door, despite the fact that the sun wasn't even up yet. It was going to be a scorcher of a day, as most days in July usually were, but she couldn't help but feel annoyed with how much she was already sweating. Still, she toed on her boots and walked out towards where she kept her small, two door car. She kept walking for another hundred feet, and then another hundred, before she got to the place she had cleared out a week after she got there and walked to stand in the middle. She found her usually shoeprints, worn down in the dirt from standing the same place for two months straight and bounced up and down on her feet, turning back around to face the other two.

"I've, uh, been practicing," Avery said, nervous to show them.

About two days after they made it to New Mexico, when Tony and Steve were completely sick of each other and yelling over something nonsensical, Avery had accidentally made another shield in between them. It had thrown them both back and pinned them to the wall, effectively stunning them both into shocked silence. Neither of them were hurt of course, mostly just surprised, but it had shaken them a bit more than Avery would like.

The first thing she did after they left was clear this little spot and try to actually make a shield.

It hadn't worked.

In fact, it was such a pathetic attempt that she popped a few blood vessels in her eyes from the strain.

It had taken a solid week before she was able to do anything. It had started out small, nothing more than a pea sized little blob floating in front of her face before it spluttered out. She tried again and again, producing the same thing for four days straight until it turned into anything real or tangible.

After that, she had been able to do more. Nothing like the one that had separated Tony and Steve, but they were sizable enough.

And then they got bigger.

She was rather proud of that fact.

"Practicing what?"

"Stay back," Avery said, holding up her arm when Clint took a step too close to her circle. He raised his eyebrows, but held his arms up, nodding at her. She smiled slightly, closing her eyes as she started to get back in the right headspace for what she was about to do.

When she was seven, using her first powers without meaning to, it had felt like she had no control. It wasn't like she could feel the energy, but she could feel the effect, like the scar left behind from her mind reaching out and latching onto all the things people tried to keep hidden from her. The shield was different. Where her other power felt like water slipping away from her, the shield felt like fire. She could feel it in her veins, deep in her gut, all over her body. It didn't hurt, per se, but it wasn't pleasant.

She took a deep breath and turned her hands over, holding out her palms upwards as she started the process. First, she collected all the spare energy in her body. She couldn't explain it, and she probably wouldn't ever be able to, but she could. She focused on her hands, moving everything in that direction while she took a few more steadying breaths. Second, she pushed it to the surface. That was the part that hurt, like she pushing her very being out of her own body, but she did it anyway, knowing that the feeling would pass after a few moments. Third, she made it solid.

She cracked open an eye, hoping that she hadn't just embarrassed herself in front of the other two, but smiled brightly when the saw the shield shimmering about three feet from her outstretched arms.

"Holy shit."

Keeping her arms out, Avery walked forward, chest welling with pride.

Two months she had been working on that. Two months she had been out there every day in the sun just so something like what happened in Tony's lab wouldn't happen again.

"What is that?"

"Energy shield," Avery said, not really sure how else to describe it. She had never been able to test its strength, but she assumed, like the one with the Chitauri, that it was reasonably strong. "I've called Jane and Bruce to ask them what they think, but without taking a sample they weren't much help."

"Is this coming out of you?" Clint walked closer to it, mouth slightly agape. She didn't know if he was impressed or confused, or perhaps a little bit of both, but she was just happy he didn't seem angry. "Can I touch it?"

Avery considered it for a moment, not sure what the outcome would be. She scooted closer and held her arms around it, fingers spreading out as she focused her mind back on maintaining it. "Carefully."

"This is what blew up Stark's lab?" Natasha asked, stalking around to the other side of the shield. The golden color reflected on her face. "It's," She paused, lips quirking. "This is, well, I don't know what this is. I've never seen anything like it."

"My mom never told me about anything like this." Clint kept moving forward as Avery spoke, moving so that the three of them formed a circle around it. "We always talked about the first thing, but never this. I've got nothing. I don't know if she didn't know I would be able to do this, or hoped that it wouldn't ever come up, but the only thing she made an attempt at helping me with was controlling the mental powers."

"Is it solid?"

"Did your mom have powers?"

Avery shook her head, looking down at her feet. "There's a lot my mom didn't tell me. She could have, probably did actually, but she never once even hinted that she did." Avery tried not to sound too bitter, but she couldn't help it.

As much as she had improved, and she acknowledged that this was barely the surface, her bitterness and anger towards her mom had also deepened. She had never considered herself to have a very strongly mothering instinct, but the thought of doing what her mom did to her own child made her skin crawl. It wasn't right and she couldn't help but feel like her ten year tailspin had been caused by the woman who was supposed to care for her above anyone else. If she had just been told she could have been working on it, improving it and figuring out that stress was her trigger for losing self-control, instead of running away from it all.

But then again, perhaps she had inherited that from her mother.

Running away to another planet seemed like the ultimate in flightiness.

"Thor would have been a good source for this," Avery admitted, disliking that it highlighted her immaturity to do so. "But it is what it is."

"I'm going to touch it." Clint didn't wait anymore and pressed a single finger to the shield. It didn't give in the slightest, but the shimmering color gathered around the point, brightening ever so slightly. When he was sure it wasn't going to do anything, he opened his palm and pressed his entire hand to it, pushing forward until the muscles in his arm strained. "It's solid." Clint pressed his even more, but it didn't budge.

"They definitely don't explode anymore," Avery mentioned casually, shrugging her shoulders.

Clint immediately pulled his hand back, scowling over at her. "You couldn't have mentioned that before I started fondling it?"

"It's perfectly safe."

"Is this not the same thing that destroyed an entire lab?"

"The very same thing?" Avery smirked and stepped a little closer to her own shield. "No. In the same family? Yes."

She touched her hand to it, feeling the warmth of the smooth surface with a faraway look on her face. It seemed to respond to her touch, although she couldn't explain how or why. After a moment, she flattened her hand and pressed it forward, moving it into the shield until her fingers pierced the surface. The shield flowed around her arm, shape changing to adjust to her as she pressed her hand into the middle. She flipped her hand over and flexed her fingers, cupping them up as she started drawing the energy back into her. The shield shuddered for a moment, seeming to not do what she wanted, before it started shrinking back down into her hand. It kept getting smaller and smaller until it was no bigger than a sparkly lemon, hovering above her cupped hand. She wrapped her fingers around it and squeezed, forcing it even smaller until it disappeared entirely.

"I want breakfast," Avery said, turning to walk back to her house without mentioning what had just occurred.

Her body was buzzing from the energy she had just reabsorbed backing her twitchy, but she shoved her hands together to keep them from visibly moving, and marched back to her house. She always felt like she had stuck a fork in a socket for a few hours after she reabsorbed, but the thing she had found that helped the most was a large plate of eggs and a can of tomato soup. She didn't think either Natasha or Clint would care for that sort of meal, so she decided fried tomatoes would have to do. She had managed to grow some, with more effort than they were probably worth, that had just ripened.

She kicked off her sandy boots when she was back inside and dropped down to her knees to give Mandu a good morning kiss between his eyes. He diligently followed after her, passing between her legs as she walked to the kitchen.

She heard the sound of her front door closing as she started pulling out the ingredients. Mandu hopped up onto the counter and watched her, eyes following her every movement. It was part of their morning ritual and she wasn't going to let that change just because they had a few visitors.

"You've really carved out a little life here," Natasha said, walking into the kitchen.

"It's okay," Avery said, pulling out a bowl to start cracking eggs. "It's exactly what I needed."

"You planning on coming back?" Clint asked. He leaned on the door frame to the kitchen, arms folded across his chest. Normally, such a posture would seem threatening, pressuring somehow, but she found she didn't mind. She was just happy to be seeing people.

"Maybe. I've been thinking about it a lot," She admitted, finding that it was even truer once she said it out loud. "I've been doing really well. No incidents, nobody's gotten hurt."

"You don't have to."

"That's not why you're here?"

"No."

Avery scrambled the eggs a bit more forcefully, looking down at the bowl just so she didn't have to look at them. She added salt and pepper, scrambling the eggs again. "The time off has been good."

"But?" Natasha prodded, propping her legs up on the other chair.

"But, I'm worried that I'm not ready to jump back in. I don't know if I can do what Fury wants. Not yet."

"Have you talked to anyone?"

"Like, in general, or in the clinical sense?"

Clint snorted and repositioned himself, seemingly quite comfortable in her little kitchen, surrounded by her plants and knitted doodads. She felt a rush of affection for him in that moment and was reminded, quite suddenly, of the fact that he was apparently a big part of what she was able to take the time she needed in the first place. "Tony has been really good about calling once a week. Steve does as well, but that's only every three days or so. Other than that, it's been me, myself, and isolation." She could tell they were sharing a look behind her back, but she found she didn't much care. If they weren't there to bring her back, and she didn't really buy that they were only there to check in, she wasn't sure what their purpose was. She bent down to grab a pan and placed it on the stove, turning the heat on just low enough that it would melt a small pad of butter. She turned back around and looked at them both, shoulders slumping slightly. "I'm sorry I haven't kept in contact."

"You know, this is my first day back too," Clint said, avoiding her gaze for a moment before he looked back up.

"Loki?" Avery asked, feeling the heat from the stove on her lower back. She moved away from it and grabbed Mandu, depositing him next to his empty food bowl. She grabbed a can of wet cat food and popped it open, holding the lid down for him to lick before she set it in his bowl. She then grabbed the shredded cheese she was going to use for the eggsand sprinkled a few bits on top of his food. "He messed with you pretty bad."

"He put my brain in a blender and used me to instigate an alien attack on New York City, so I'd say so, yeah." Avery grimaced, not meaning to offend him. "Calm down, I'm not mad. It's a fact. I've been working through it for the past two months with my wife and kids."

Silence.

"I'm sorry, your…"

"My wife Laura, and my two kids."

"I'm not doing anything," Avery said, immediately going through her body check to see if she was accidentally forcing that information out of Clint. Just as her shields had stabilized, so had her ability to force people to reveal their secrets.

"I know. I'm telling you because I want to. Also because we're in the middle of nowhere and I expect this information to never leave this room."

"I would never, I mean, you don't have to worry, Clint."

Clint smirked and shook his head. "You're always so high-strung. Calm down before you have a coronary." He walked over to the stove and grabbed the bag of cheese, tipping his head back to eat a bit before he continued, "Anyway, for the first week or so I couldn't sleep. My wife didn't understand, but she helped the best way she could, but there wasn't much she could do. I stayed away from the kids, just in case that greasy bastard left anything behind. They didn't get it either. After that, every day was a little better. Some days were hard, some were easy. My wife made it bearable until the voices stopped."

"Why are yo…"

"I took the time I needed. You did the same. You can come back when you're ready, just like I did. We just came to check on you, nothing more, nothing less."

* * *

_12:20 p.m., Stark Tower_

"No, no, no!" Tony shouted, jumping back when the gear shaft he was working on burst into flame. How that happened, he wasn't entirely sure, but he threw it to the ground and started stomping on it. It left behind a sooty smear, causing Tony to sign heavily as he looked down at his latest setback.

"Why does it smell like burning hair?"

Tony glowered at Peter.

"Don't you have homework to do or something?"

"I'm interning with you. Did you forget in the last five minutes?"

"No. I was just hoping it was a fever dream induced by being awake for too long."

"No such luck," Peter said, hopping up onto the counter. He shoved aside one of Tony's projects and crossed his legs, picking at his nails with a small screw driver. "So what does this suit do?" Tony waved his hand and brought the schematic up, enlarging it until it filled up the middle of the room. "The Rubber Duckie?"

"Deep sea exploration. High pressure, low temperature, the works."

"Could it work in space?" Peter asked, looking up at the plan with a fascinated expression. He didn't notice the look of slight pain on Tony's face, even if it was only there for a second, as his eyes took in every detail. "It's pretty similar to the bottom of the ocean."

"Except for the water."

"Yeah, but, the same kind of harsh environment."

"They're really nothing alike."

"If you…"

"Peter, drop it."

"Did you forget the venders were coming over early to set up for the party?" Pepper asked, swanning into the lab in a way that only she could pull off and providing an out for Tony just when he needed it most. She smiled over at Peter as she walked over to Tony, holding out a plate with a turkey sandwich on it and a pile of salty chips. "Peter, I didn't know you were still here. I can go make you another sandwich."

"Uh, no thanks, I was just about to leave."

"How is your aunt doing?"

"Aunt May is good. She's really appreciative for this opportunity."

"Well, it's not charity," Tony said, swirling around in his chair. "You've done good work, kid."

"You should invite May to the party. She's already met Steve, correct?"

"Yeah, he and Avery came over for dinner a while back. Gwen invited them."

"Sweet girl. Is she still interning at Oscorp?"

"Last we spoke, yes."

Pepper looked down at her hands at the tone of Peter's voice. She glanced over at Tony, who simply shrugged and swiveled around again. "First love bites."

"Very helpful," Pepper hissed, smiling sympathetically at Peter. "My first boyfriend and I broke up right after high school too."

Peter nodded, clearly very uncomfortable with the two of them staring him down. Tony rolled his eyes and stood up, leaving behind the plans that had been given him fits for the better part of the working day. "Bring your aunt by. Steve could use some more familiar faces besides me and Brucie."

"Will there be alcohol?"

"Of course…"

"Not for you," Pepper finished sternly, shooting another look at Tony. "Now, Tony's kept you long enough. Tell May I say hello and that I look forward to meeting her."

"Will do. Thanks Ms. Potts. For everything."

"Of course. I'm just happy this is the right fit. It will look fantastic when you head to NYU, if that's still the plan?"

"For now, but who knows."

"It's the summer. You don't have to decide right now."

Peter walked towards the lab door, hand hovering over the control panel for a moment. "I'll see you tomorrow, Tony. Bye Ms. Potts."

Pepper waited approximately half a second after Peter left before she rounded on him, arms folded across her chest. Tony stood up and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, leaning in to press a slobbery kiss on her check that broke the annoyed façade instantly. "I've missed you."

"The board has been a nightmare, but I'm home for a while now."

"Good."

"Is this a new suit?"

Tony pulled back from her and turned around, hiding his expression so she wouldn't see that he had been thoroughly caught. He hadn't planned on her finding out about his latest project, imagining that she wouldn't be very happy if she found out just how many suits he had made in the last two months. The Rubber Duckie was just the latest. Granted, it was a little more than a skeleton frame and an idea, but his ideas, more often than not, manifested into reality, so he imagined it wouldn't be long before he got it up and running and at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

"It's not, not a new suit."

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine."

"It's nothing to worry about, Pepps."

"Bambi informed me that Reed Richards called."

"About?"

"He wants funding for a mission to space."

Tony flinched, but tried to recover without her noticing. "Why us? Von Doom has the space contracts."

"We have to fund some projects besides your own."

"Doom just put that station up. Richards can go to him."

"This rivalry is silly."

"I am a grown man, Pepper. I don't have time for rivalries."

"So Justin Hammer, Hank Pym, Norman Osborn, Victor von Doo…"

"I am an innocent party in all of that."

"Right." Pepper smiled at him and leaned forward, returning his kiss from earlier. "Eat your lunch and I'll quit bothering you. I have a lot to get done before the party anyway. I'll see you at dinner tonight."

"Wouldn't miss it."

* * *

_12:35, Midtown_

"So what you're saying is that is uses radio waves to…"

"Transmit information and data across large distances," Bruce finished, perusing the pre-bottled smoothies the small café had with sour look on his face. His hand hovered over the blueberry before he sighed and grabbed the green one. The one without anything exciting in it. He missed eating exciting food, but the Other Guy liked it too much. Too much spice, green. Too much caffeine, green. Too much dairy, green.

"And it's everywhere?"

Bruce nodded and turned around, taking note of the confused look on Steve's face. He didn't envy the man. He could only imagine what a shock it would be to go to sleep in 1945 and wake up to the miserable reality that was the 21st century. The food was better, Bruce supposed, except for the obsession with putting kale in everything. There was a definite lack of people dying from polio, which was always a good thing. Even so, Bruce couldn't help but wonder if his life would have been simpler if it had been him.

"Number 87!"

Steve raised his hand and walked to the counter, thanking the worker with a smile before he walked back over to Bruce. He handed him his sandwich, eyebrows knitted together like he still didn't understand what Bruce had been trying to explain to him for the better part of an hour. He didn't mind, however. Steve was a mellow presence, the sort of polar opposite of Tony in the way he tried to not upset anyone or say anything offensive.

"I still don't understand."

"You don't have to get it in a day."

"I feel like I'm a kid again."

Bruce nodded, walking up to the counter to pay for his food. He handed over a twenty to the kid working the register. "You're getting it a lot faster than most people turning 94 in two days."

"Don't remind me," Steve said, shaking his head. "Tony insists on throwing a party."

"Not your thing?"

"I don't exactly have a lot of friends."

"You haven't talk to Avery in a while, have you?" Bruce asked, turned back around once he got his change.

"She doesn't have much access to a phone."

"So her cell service is…"

Steve frowned at him, not understanding for a moment before he rolled his eyes. "Her cell service is bad because she is in an area of weak reception."

"Because?"

"There's not many cell towers."

"And you said you didn't get it." Bruce looked around the small café for a place to sit, noticing, to his great chagrin, that there was only one small table open, jammed in between three others.

"Thanks for talking it through with me," Steve said, noticing the small table as well. "I know you're busy."

"No, I've enjoyed it. I miss teaching," Bruce admitted, weaving his way towards the small table. He was trying to be normal in room filled with so many people, but he felt like all eyes were on him. "And you're a good student. Better than undergrads, at least."

"Avery doesn't like large crowds either, you know."

"What?"

"We can get this to go, if you want."

Bruce immediately shook his head and sat down in the seat facing the door. "No, I need a break from the lab. The fumes were getting to be a bit much."

"And Tony."

"And Tony," Bruce agreed. "He's…"

"Tony."

Steve took a bite of his food as they fell into comfortable silence. It had been a long two months for everyone who lived in the tower, but Bruce thought they would have been especially hard on Steve. Bruce, Tony, Natasha and Clint, when they were there, tended to be more isolated people. Bruce liked his alone time, with only his plants and the whirl of machines and the warm glow of overhead lighting to keep him company. Tony was the same, when notable breaks for Pepper and making the requisite societal appearance that came with his name. Steve was different. He needed people. But more than that, he needed people who would understand him.

"Has Avery said when she's coming back?" Bruce asked, taking a sip of his smoothie.

It tasted like grass.

He tried not to let that fact bother him as he took another sip.

"You mean _if_ she comes back."

"Does she like New Mexico that much?"

"She hasn't said." Bruce didn't want to tell him that he thought it was probably better if Avery wasn't with them in the tower. He didn't have anything against her. In fact, he liked her personality quite a bit, but their mutual tendency for being a human disaster didn't exactly bode well for potential future friendship. Despite that, she had called him about two weeks after she left to apologize. He figured Dr. Foster and her friend got similar phone calls, but didn't ask them. "Anyway, I think it'll be good for her. Some time alone. No stress. Just her and the cat."

"She could have at least arranged visitation with Mandu for you."

"Now you sound like Tony," Steve said, leaning back in his chair with a small smile on his face. "Now, what's next?"

"Google. It'll change your life."

* * *

_8:47 p.m. by Midgardian reckoning, Private Royal Quarters_

"We should bring her home," Frigga said, clearing her throat as they finished up their evening meal. They had taken their supper in their private quarters, the Alfather, Frigga, and Thor alone, but the absence of Loki was felt. He never cared for going through such motions, but he had always obliged, perhaps more so for her sake than anything else. Now, he spent his days in his cell, speaking to no one but his guards and the handmaiden who brought him his meals.

It was the isolation that disturbed her, even though she knew he deserved it.

"She does not wish to come," Thor said, spoon hovering over his bowl of fruit. He looked weary, with deep circles under his eyes and a tenseness about his shoulders that she didn't care for. "Fulla made sure she did not know about who she was."

Frigga felt her chest convulse when her son said the name of her youngest sister. She missed her terribly. Fulla had been the more carefree of her two sisters, which seemed only natural from being younger twin. Forra was intelligent and pragmatic, calculating each move they took just to avoid making a mistake. She was the protective of the two, the one who trained with the warriors and considered giving her life to the Valkyrior before Baldur came along. Her protectiveness had only become more pronounced, her shields, which were her gift, became stronger and lasted longer.

They could not prevent the space pox from taking her, however.

When she died, Fulla had been inconsolable.

Perhaps, Frigga should have seen it coming, her eventual need to get away, but it still upset her all the same when Odin handed down her banishment.

"Tell me again. What is she like?"

Her husband, who had remained silent up until that moment, set down his own fork. "Frigga, this will only cause you further pain."

"Is she beautiful like her mother?"

"She is like Fulla and Forra," Thor said, voice careful and kind. "Except for her eyes. Those are hers alone."

"I want to meet her," Frigga said, repeating herself for what felt like the hundredth time.

Avery Gudrun. The niece she didn't know she had, living alone and without her family for over ten years. The pain she felt at Loki's isolation transferred to her, for the woman she could only imagine in her mind. She hoped she was gentle and bizarre like her mother, but she thought she had no right to hope so. She hadn't made an attempt to try and bring her home.

Avery was the last of her line, the last of the daughters of her house, and she had failed her.

"And her personality? Does she laugh like Fulla?"

Thor looked down at his fruit again, taking a bite to stall, before he shook his head. "She did not laugh much. I do not believe she has had such occasion recently."

"She must be so lonely," Frigga breathed out.

"She is not your sisters, Frigga," Odin said, voice as gentle as he could manage. "And she is a woman grown. If she wishes to visit, then she may. I will not force her."

"She is of my line," Frigga said, voice suddenly quite fierce. "It should be my order."

"What would you do? Order Heimdall to pluck the girl from her home? Bring her here and care for her the way she think you should have for your sisters?"

"I want her safe. If that is here and not on Midgard, then so be it."

"Avery is stubborn, mother. I believe she will come, but in her own time."

"I want Heimdall watching her."

"His gaze is on Vanaheim."

"Heimdall will watch her. If any harm comes to her, I want her brought to me." Frigga stood up, looking at her husband with the sort of intensity she only reserved for the most serious of conversations.

"Fulla was banished."

"So you would punish her child for her transgressions?"

"No, I am simply reminding you of the crimes your sister committed."

"An oathbreaker." The name tasted acidic in her mouth. "Would we label Avery as such as well?"

"Label her how you wish. We are fighting a war, Frigga. You cannot allow yourself to forget. It is because of Loki that the Nine Realms are in chaos."

"It is because of Loki we know she exists. I will not bargain with you, Odin. She comes home. Whether tomorrow, or ten years from now, I will bring her home. I respected your decision to banish Fulla. I cannot do so to her innocent child. I will send word to Heimdall. If she comes to harm, he will bring her here."

Odin stared at her, the tension building between them until he sighed and stood up as well. "Avery is not Loki, Frigga."

"I do not mistake the two."

"Then do not make the mistake of thinking you have failed either."

Frigga pursed her lips. Perhaps her husband was right, although she knew she would never believe him. Loki had always been a troubled child, moody and emotional for reasons she could never explain, but she had never imagined he would do something so terrible just to spite his brother. She couldn't help but feel like if she had been more attentive, more aware of how her son was feeling, it wouldn't have happened.

But that was the same regret she felt towards her sister as well.

Fulla had always struggled with her gifts. The ability to read people was not something Frigga could understand, but she had tried the best she could. She never kept secrets from her just to lighten the burden she felt, but apparently that hadn't been enough.

Fulla had still broken her oath. And now she feared Avery would do the same.


	2. Chapter 2

Avery held the small bubble of energy in her hand, bouncing it up and down in her palm as a way of keeping herself focused. It had been a long day, one that started entirely too early for her taste, and had resulted in one too many headaches. Still, she was able to hold it steady and for that she was thankful. It meant that her time in New Mexico wasn't entirely wasted, but it also meant that she wasn't entirely crazy for wanting to come back to the city.

She squeezed her hand open and closed, making the little shield disappear for a moment before she made another one. It was warm, a bit like a small sun in her hand, and seemed to vibrate. Avery was used to the feeling by that point, however, and no longer feared it the way she had two months ago.

She didn't understand it just yet, but she knew she wasn't afraid of it anymore. It was that sort of progress that made her feel happy to be back, rather than anxious.

"Understood," Natasha said into her phone, glancing over at Avery as the elevator doors closed behind her. "She's already agreed. Next Monday."

Avery pulled a face and made the little ball bigger, moving it so that it engulfed her entire hand. The little threads of energy glowed and grew warmer, pulling closer to her skin until there wasn't any space left. "Tell him it'll only be for a few days," She whispered to Natasha.

"He knows."

"And tell him I don't want to d…"

"Avery, you were gone for two months right after you agreed to go back to work," Natasha said, pressing the phone against her shoulder so that Fury wouldn't be able to hear their back and forth. "Don't be demanding."

"I'm not," Avery paused, seeing the look on Natasha's face. "Never mind. Next Monday."

Natasha pressed the phone back to her ear and turned away from Avery, speaking quickly in hushed tones. The shied squeezed against her hand until it was painful, but she didn't remove it. Not yet at least. She could feel her heartbeat increase as she thought about going to work, but she didn't allow it upset her more than that. The shield flickered slightly and she flexed her hand, refocusing the energy until it stabilized again.

"Impressive," Clint said, mouth pursing slightly. "But I thought you said you weren't ready to start working."

She flexed her hand and the shield disappeared. "Please. Coming back to New York is like a neon sign. I would have had to start one way or another. Its better if it's on my terms."

Natasha shoved her phone into her pocket and turned back to them. "Fury isn't as mad as I thought he would be," She paused, smirking slightly. "Although, he's not pleased with us."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Why? Because literally none of us are doing the jobs he's paying us for, at the moment."

"Speak for yourself."

"Steve is working," Avery said, realizing that none of them had pressed the button for the penthouse. It moved on its own, speeding up towards where Steve's birthday party was currently raging. Or at least, she assumed. It didn't seem like Tony was the type to let an excuse to throw a party pass him by without overdoing it.

"I think it's a good thing," Natasha said, turning to face the door as the elevator sped upwards. "You're calmer and more in control than I've ever seen you. You can control your first ability so much better than when you first got to S.H.I.E.L.D. and you're twitching less."

"I was twitchy?" Avery asked, slightly horrified at the very idea.

"A bit," Clint said, smirking at her.

"Look, Avery, I wouldn't say this if I didn't think it was the truth. You're ready to be back and you're ready to get to work."

For the first time, Avery actually believed her.

It was weird, being stable. When Natasha and Clint showed up at her house two days ago, she was angry and annoyed. It felt like they had invaded her space, her little bubble of safety where she could focus and work on herself without worrying about hurting someone else. It had been lonely, of course, but she could wake up in the morning and not be filled with panic. Her days had been the same, monotonous and boring, and her nights had been long and quiet. Steve and Tony's phone calls kept her grounded, but she still hadn't really seen another human being for two solid months. It was exactly what she needed, but she also realized, after a few hours of sitting and laughing with Natasha and Clint, that as much as she needed time alone, she also needed people.

She didn't come back because she felt pressure from Natasha and Clint showing up.

Avery came back because she was ready and she had come to that conclusion on her own.

It was a liberating feeling, one that she wasn't sure how to process on her own, but she decided that she wanted to do everything in her power to keep it.

The elevator slowed once it reached the top floor and Avery bent down to grab Mandu, who had been dutifully sitting by her ankles the entire time, but she wasn't fast enough. The moment the elevator doors opened to the penthouse, Mandu slipped her grip and bolted, weaving his fat little body through the throngs of people celebrating Steve's birthday and out of her sight. Avery threw out her arms, calling out desperately to stop her cat from getting away, but knew he wouldn't respond. He was a cat after all, and not a very good one at that.

She dropped to her hands and knees, muttering angrily to herself the entire time, and started looking for Mandu amongst all the feet and ankles. She heard Clint and Natasha laughing, but ignored them pointedly.

Avery wasn't exactly sure why she thought it would be simple to come back to New York. Packing up all her belongings into boxes had gone smoothly enough, but it had taken her quite a bit of convincing to get Tony to let her bring all her plants and other important things. He was, apparently, of the opinion that she didn't need them and he didn't want to have that kind of mess. She kindly ignored him and packed them anyway, telling the shipping company Tony had hired for her that she wanted them kept safe and intact. Her other stuff had been easy enough to take care of, but it was a lot and Natasha and Clint, as soon as they found out she was going back, had started to rush her.

Her plan was to spend a little bit of time organizing her stuff before she went to join the party. Mandu didn't agree with that, clearly, and now she found herself crawling across the floor on all floors, hair still greasy and face unwashed.

"Captain, it's such an honor to meet you!" A voice practically shouted to her left, causing her to look up. The woman was facing her, but Avery could see Steve standing a few feet in front of her, face red and uncomfortable looking. He didn't notice her yet, giving her the opportunity to watch him for a moment without the usual swooping feeling she got in her stomach whenever he looked at her or spoke to her.

Avery couldn't help but sit back on her feet, biting her lip to keep from laughing at the look on his face.

"I have a granddaughter your age," Another woman said, much older than the first and more invasive. She leaned forward and wrapped a slender hand around Steve's arm and squeezed, giggling to herself when she felt the muscle. Avery snorted and covered her mouth with her hand, unable to stop herself from laughing.

"Pleasure to meet you both," Steve said, clearly feeling uncomfortable. "Are you enjoying the party?"

"Of course," Said the first, practically shouting in excitement. "Tony's parties are always the talk of the season. He doesn't normally do something for July 4th, but I guess this year there was a special reason." She winked at him and Steve cleared his throat, now fully showing his discomfort with what was happening.

"I didn't catch your name," Steve said, still being polite despite his clear desire to get away from the conversation as fast as possible.

"Gayle." She leaned forward again, a conspiratorial look on her face that Avery found she didn't care for in the slightest. "Now, are you seeing anyone?"

Steve looked past her and down at the floor, putting his hands into his pockets and leaning back. He didn't normally show his discomfort through physical signs. He still didn't notice her and she felt like she was only going to be able to sit there for a little bit longer before he finally did. She didn't know what she would say to him, only able to know she would start with a simple 'hi' and nothing else, but she felt a large amount of comfort settle in her chest at knowing that they would get to talk face to face again.

His phone calls meant that they had become close over the last two months. She missed him more than any of the others, something she felt slightly bad about considering how she had also become close to Tony, and Peter, who she had called a couple of times as well, while she was gone.

But Steve, Steve was something different.

What that something different was, she hadn't quite figured out, but she hoped she would be able to once they were back to spending time together face to face.

"Captain?"

Steve blinked and looked back at Gayle. "Sorry."

"I asked if you're seeing anyone," She pressed.

"No. I…" Steve cut himself off and looked down at his legs, distracted by something. Avery followed his gaze and scowled, seeing Mandu rubbing himself up against his leg. "Mandu, buddy, what are you doing here?"

The enthusiasm with which he greeted her cat made the funny feeling settle in her stomach again, leaving her nervy and almost breathless. He scooped up the cat and lifted him up, turning his back to Gayle. "Friend of yours?"

"Yes," Steve said, voice distracted. He turned around and started scanning the crowd, eyes dancing from person to person before he finally noticed her sitting on the ground not even ten feet from him. She waved, feeling herself blush even though he was only looking at her. Steve returned the gesture and walked towards her, ignoring Gayle and her companion as they called after him in an annoyed huff.

"Hi Steve," Avery said, impressing herself with how normal her voice sounded. She scrambled to her feet and smoothed down the cotton dress she was wearing, worrying over the nonexistence wrinkles.

"Avery," He was only about a foot away from her and she felt the strangest desire to hug him. So she did, wrapping her arms around his middle and squeezing. He stood still for a moment, clearly taken aback by the comfort of the gesture, before he wrapped the arm that wasn't holding Mandu around her shoulders and squeezed back. She felt him lean down slightly, felt his warmth and smelled the light cologne he was wearing, and lost all ability to think. "When did you get back?"

She stepped back and tilted her head to look at him, still a bit dazed. "What?"

"When did you get back?" He repeated the question with a smile on his face, still standing close to her.

"About thirty seconds ago. I wanted to take Mandu to my room, but Clint and Natasha wanted to come here. Mandu slipped away from me when the doors opened," She explained in a rush.

"I'm so glad you're back."

She refused to allow herself to read too much into that. Instead she looked around at the mass of people. "Really? It looks like you made a lot of friends without me."

Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head. "This was Tony's idea."

"Well, I'm going to take Mandu to my room, and then you and I are going to catch up."

"I'll come with you."

"This party is pretty tame, Rogers. Don't be a baby." Still, she stepped aside and gestured towards the elevator, already bobbing and weaving her way back through the crowd. The elevator was still there, standing open to take her to the floor they all lived on. She held out her arm to stop the elevator from closing as he stepped in behind her, ignoring the way Mandu immediately started squirming to try and run back into the room with the party. "He bolted the first chance he got," Avery said, pressing the button to the floor they all lived on. "Little brat."

"Maybe he got lonely," Steve suggested.

"Lonely? Was I not company enough?"

"Apparently not."

"That's fair," Avery said, pulling her hair up and bouncing her foot. "Things got a little weird there towards the end." The elevator door opened on their floor and they both stepped out, Avery first and then Steve, and walked towards her bedroom. It was blissfully quiet and Avery found herself relaxing instantly. She hadn't realized she was carrying any sort of tension in her shoulders, but then the muscles loosened and she was able to fully relax and enjoy Steve's company. "You can't say anything about how many plants there are."

Avery hesitated for a moment before she opened to door to her room, hoping that the shipping company took care of them the way she hoped. Seeing that every single flat surface was covered in plants, she let out a sigh of relief and went over to investigate. She set one upright and brushed some of the spilled dirt into her hand, tipping it back into the pot and turning back to Steve.

"I needed something to pass the time," She explained, although she didn't really need to. "Anyway, sit, sit." Avery waggled her hands, gesturing for him to take a seat on her bed as she started bustling around, straightening up the mess she didn't make. "Tony said he was going to have my stuff delivered, but I didn't think it would happen this fast..." Her voice trailed off at the end as she started looking around at the piles and piles of boxes and bags, suddenly remembering what she had made such an effort to get back to New York by the 4th.

It was his birthday. And as spacey as she usually was, she had managed to remember to get him something. It wasn't much, and he probably would have gotten five hundred similar things, all worth more, from the other people at the party, but she wanted to give it to him before she forgot. She went to a box on the top of the piles and threw it open, digging through her pile of clothes and baubles, throwing them aside when she realized that what she was looking for wasn't there.

She went through another three before she finally felt what she was looking for. Letting out a triumphant noise, she pulled it out and turned around, holding it to her chest.

Steve was still standing, causing her to scowl.

"Sit. I have something for you."

"You didn't…"

"Shut up. It's not diamond encrusted."

He finally sat back on her bed and folded his arms, looking slightly uncomfortable. She elbowed him, indicating for him to move over. When he did, she held out the gift to him, hoping that she wasn't completely off the rails in what she gave him.

"Thanks Avery," Steve said, taking the gift from her.

"You don't even know what it is."

"I don't care."

They looked at each other for a moment and his expression changed, morphing into something Avery couldn't even begin to understand. After another moment he looked down at the hastily wrapped gift and pulled the newspaper off, wadding it up into a ball and dropping it in the small space between them. "A sketchbook," Steve said, running his hand over the surface. He found his embossed initials down at the bottom and he looked at her once again.

"And a set of pencils," She added, pointing to the other part of the gift. "I still expect that picture of Mandu." She reached out and took the sketchbook and flipped it open to the first page. "I did the first one for you."

He laughed at the absolutely horrendous picture, taking it back so that he could get a better look.

"Aves, it's perfect." He didn't seem to realize the nickname he had just slipped in, but she didn't mind. In fact, it was quite the opposite. They stared at each other again but Avery couldn't hold his gaze quite as long, entirely too embarrassed by the way she suddenly felt to keep it up. Instead she stood up and went back to her boxes.

She cleared her throat. "Anyway, what have you been up to?"

"I've started doing a few missions for S.H.I.E.L.D.. Nothing major, but it's kept me busy."

"Anything interesting come up?"

"Arms dealer off the coast of Brazil that somehow got her hands on a shipment of guns going to a U.S. military base."

"She? How progressive. I love it."

"She gave me a good wallop." Avery snorted, completely unable to not laugh out loud. "Sorry. I've been working on it."

"No. Don't, I like it, it's just sometimes I forget."

"Well, I wish other people would." The frankness of his statement and the clear stress he felt showed through, causing her to pause, hands hovering over the box she was leaning on.

"People like to talk about it."

"It's all they want to talk about. Men want me to come play football with them so that I can tell them about what it was like killing Nazis. Women want me to either date them or date someone they know just so I can take them dancing." Steve seemed frustrated. Avery turned her body and gave him her full attention, hoping that he was over exaggerating. If he wasn't, then the last two months couldn't have been easy. "Nobody asks me about me. They want to know what the war was like, or how many people I killed, or if I anybody I knew is still alive."

"What do you tell them?"

"The truth. They don't like it, but it gets them to leave me alone faster."

"Steve, that's the most antisocial thing I've ever heard you say."

"Well, now I get why you decided to move to the desert."

"Plus you get a wicked tan." Avery smiled briefly before she looked at him, face turning serious. "You're okay though?

"It just feel like I'm back on display. When people ask, they don't actually want to know the reality. They just want to hear that I'm enjoying the modern world and nothing else."

"Most people don't actually what you to tell the truth when they ask."

"Not you, though."

"Not me, so come on, out with it."

They fell into silence and Avery thought he might not actually want to tell her how he had been doing, but then he sighed and folded his arms over his chest. "Adjusting is harder than I thought it would be. Every time I think I get something, it changes and makes me feel like an idiot. I felt like an idiot the vast majority of the time growing up, but at least Bucky was always there to help me."

"He was your friend, the one who died in the war?" It was a bit insensitive, but she didn't know enough about him to say anything else.

"He was the only thing I had growing up. My mom worked a lot, so it was just me and Bucky most of the time."

"How'd you meet?" Avery asked, resting her hand on the box and leaning on it. She leaned forward, eyes focused entirely on Steve.

Steve smirked, clearly remembering something that made him quite happy. "I got in a little over my head in a fight. Bucky was walking back from church with his mom and he noticed and stepped in."

"Oh, was he bigger?" Avery asked.

"Buck was six foot by the time he was thirteen."

"What was he like?"

"What do you mean?"

"His personality. Was he like you?" Avery asked, completely forgetting about what she had been doing in favor of giving Steve her full attention. "You're a little shit stirrer, so I'm guessing he was the same."

"Bucky was always more outgoing. He could walk into a room and find somebody to talk to. He didn't like downtime, so he always made me go outside and do something when I was feeling up to it," Steve said, face falling slightly. "Now that I think about, you and him would have gotten along really well."

"Really?"

"He would have asked you to go dancing after about two minutes of knowing you if we were back in the 40s."

Avery blushed, not entirely sure she believed him. "What about you? Would you have talked to me?"

"You mean, would Bucky've been able to get me to stop stuttering long enough to ask your name?"

"Please. I would have made the first move."

Steve coughed, face reddening until it matched hers. "A girl like you wouldn't have even noticed me."

Avery crossed the small space before she even thought about it, taking a seat next to him and sitting on her hands so that he wouldn't see the shaking. She nudged his knee with her leg and smiled at him, hoping that he could see the sincerity in what she was about to say. "I think we would have been friends no matter what."

"You didn't know me. You can't say that."

"I know you now. That's enough for me."

They stared at each other again, Avery feeling even more tension than before.

The door burst open and they both jumped back, although they hadn't even been close to doing something, and tried to occupy entirely different realms of the room. Peter sauntered into the room, still looking over his shoulder as he spoke to someone before he turned back around, mouth open to say something. He froze, open mouth quickly quirking into a knowing smirk that made Avery cringe. "Hey guys."

She stood up from the bed and walked back over to her boxes, turning her gaze downward so she could focus on that instead of her embarrassment. "Peter, I'm sorry I didn't call to tell you I would be coming back. It just sort of happened and I didn't really have time."

"She didn't tell me either," Steve said, standing up from the bed as well.

"It was supposed to be a surprise. You know, until Mandu ruined it," Avery said, digging through the box in a desperate attempt to find a clean pair of clothes to change into.

"No, it was great. I wasn't expecting you at all," Steve said, a bit too loudly. Peter turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "I hoped you would turn up eventually, but I never expected it would be today."

"I told you I was coming back," Avery said, growing more frustrated with the lack of new clothes. Growing tired, she dumped it over onto the floor and toed around the stuffed with her foot, finding nothing but old workout clothes and a few sweatshirts. Nothing remotely appropriate for a party, although she wasn't too keen on going. Seeing Steve, and now Peter, was enough for her. If only Tony would show up, it would be all she needed. He was busy schmoozing, she imagined, so she would just have to settle for finding him later. "You don't have to be so dramatic and wounded about it."

"I'm not."

"Well I am," Peter said, completely ignoring the look Steve gave him. Avery glanced up from her clothes, confused. "Remember that little side project we started a few months ago."

She stared at him, truly drawing a blank until he gave her another significant look. "Shit."

"Yes. Shit."

"Oh Peter, I'm so sorry. I completely spaced and didn't even think about it when I left. I shoul…"

"Calm down. I've been watching it. Luckily, or unluckily for us, however you want to view it, nothing has happened."

"That's good, I guess."

"Except it isn't because that means that either those samples were just lost when Gwen did the final count, which means she isn't as good with numbers as I've been telling everybody she is…"

"How embarrassing for us all," Avery said with an eye roll.

"Or, they got out and they just haven't popped up yet, but they will eventually."

"Which do you think it is?" Steve asked, bending down and picking up a pair of jeans and handing them to Avery. She smiled at him gratefully and laid them out on the bed neatly. "The dress you're wearing is fine, Aves. It's just us."

"How did yo… You know what, it doesn't matter. Anyway, which is it Pete?"

"Gwen is better at math than anybody I've ever met."

"Including me?"

"What?"

"I majored in math in college," Avery said, slightly offended by the looks on surprise on their faces. "I thought you guys had all read my file."

"What kind of math?" Peter asked, clearly unbothered by her indignation.

"General. Although I specialized in applied mathematics."

"I know I shouldn't be shocked, but…"

"You're right, because you're my friend. You should be shocked that with my kind of brains I'm not finding the cure for cancer or preventing cleft palates before children are born." Avery smirked and walked over to her closet, taking her jeans with her to change into.

"I wouldn't put those on," Peter said, stopping her in her tracks. "Black would be better."

"Why?"

"Because I trust Gwen's math skills more than basically anything."

"What does that have to do with my clothes?"

"Oh I'm so glad you asked," Peter said, hoping up onto her lower dresser. "Do you know what today is?"

"Steve's birthday."

"Yes, and by the way, you're aging so well." He saluted Steve, who rolled his eyes and sat back on the bed, decidedly less comfortable looking now that someone else was in the room, although she didn't think he was all that comfortable to begin with. "But also, it's a national holiday. Which means no one will be working. Which means…"

"Oscorp will be empty."

"Bingo. I can see that math degree, now that you mention it."

"Shut up. What does Oscorp being empty have to do with anything?"

"Gwen told me, before you know…"

"She dumped you."

"Avery," Steve hissed, sending her a look. She shrugged her shoulders and waved her hand for him to continue.

"Thanks. Anyway, she told me that Oscorp always takes bank holidays to restructure and reorganize because they're normally open the rest of the year, including weekends."

"You want to get in before they reorganize."

"The data could be lost."

"And you want my help?" Avery was able to surmise just from the way he was looking at her.

"You did promise."

"I don't think this is a good idea," Steve said, catching onto what Peter was getting at as well.

"It does sound just a touch illegal, doesn't it?" All three of them turned around and looked at Tony, Peter smiling and Steve rolling his eyes at the way he sauntered into the room. Avery resisted the urge to run over and hug him, knowing that he wouldn't appreciate that very much, and instead settled for smiling at him. "Hello, gatecrasher."

"Hey, Tony."

"Don't stop the planning on my account," He gestured between them and moved to sit on the bed, winking at Avery as he passed. "You look nice and tan."

"I spent a lot of time in the sun."

"Do you have any tan lines?"

"Not a single one."

"Did you at least get something for all the melanoma?"

Avery nodded, knowing that that particular topic was going to come up eventually. She didn't mind, per se, but she was tired from the long day of traveling and she could feel her energy dipping already. Still, she was a bit excited to show them, particularly Steve and Tony, why she had isolated herself for so long. She wanted them to know that it was worth it, that she hadn't just kicked around in the desert for two months just for the fun of it. So she stood up and shook out her arms, deciding that showing was better than any sort of preamble or explanation that she could give them.

She closed her eyes, much like she had when she was showing Natasha and Clint, and focused all her energy into one part of her body, her hand in this case. She felt the tingle, the slight burn as the power pushed up through her skin and gathered into something solid that hovered just above her hand. She opened her eyes and lifted her other hand and used it as another support.

"The further it moves away from my body, the harder it is to keep under control," She said, remembering the little tick she had noticed after about a month of trying. "Once it gets further than thirty or forty feet, I have to use something to stabilize it."

"Like what?" Tony asked, sporting the same look of fascination that the others had.

"Usually? More energy. I can make a bit of a cord to connect it to my body to give it more energy. I haven't tested how far out it can go, though."

"Show me," Tony said, and she was happy to hear that there wasn't a single hint of it being a demand.

She looked over at Steve and Peter, hoping to see something positive in their gazes. She didn't expect much from either of them, considering their past experiences with her powers, but she wasn't sure how she would handle it if she saw anything even remotely close to alarm or revulsion, although she thought she might deserve that after she twice put their lives in danger.

Avery pushed it away from her body and over to the other side of the room, expanding it until it covered the entire length of the wall. It started to flicker and she could feel it getting away from her, so she scooted slightly closer and lifted one hand, dropping all but two of her fingers so she could pull out one fiber of the shield. Moving her fingers back, she coxed the fiber back towards her, focusing hard to keep it attached to the larger shield while she tried to get it back to her. When she was able to, she wrapped her fingers around the little string and held it tightly in her closed fist, relaxing instantly when she felt how much more in control she felt when she was connected to it physically.

"Avery, that's great," Steve said, moving closer to her. He held out a hand, eyeing her carefully as if he was asking permission, before he placed it on her shoulder. "How do you feel?"

"Great," She admitted, looking up at him. They looked at each other and Avery felt her control slip ever so slightly, much to her embarrassment, and she decided that she should pull it back before she did something cringe-worthy, at best. She closed her eyes and squeezed her hands into fists, pulling the energy back until it was gone. "Probably the best I've felt in years."

"Then we should celebrate," Tony said, cutting across the moment like only he could.

"We are. It's Steve's birthday. What more reason do we need?" Avery asked, noticing that Steve still hadn't removed his hand. She felt a funny feeling deep in her stomach, but she tried not to let it show on her face. Instead, she focused on how warm his hand was, and how well it fit on her shoulder, and how the pressure he applied was nothing but comfortable.

"Well, it's a good thing I have gifts then."

"I don't want anything," Steve said.

"Good, because it isn't for you." Tony started moving towards the door, holding out his arm to show that the other three should follow him. Avery shared a look with both Steve and Peter but moved towards the door anyway, finding that her interest was piqued regardless of how rude Tony was. "We'll take the back stairs and avoid all the people. I know how you feel about the unwashed masses, Avery."

Tony threw a wink at her and walked out of the room and the rest of them followed, none of them saying anything as he took the stairs two at a time. "What's got you all excited?" Avery asked, calling out to Tony as he practically bounced his way to his newly rebuilt workshop.

"Seeing you again, beautiful. It's been the longest two months of my life without you."

"Or, you know, something that's not complete bullshit."

"And ruin my big reveal? Not a chance?"

He stepped inside his lab and hurried over to the other side, gesturing for her to follow. "J. Pull up the uniforms."

" _Of course, sir."_

A panel slid back, to reveal just what Tony was talking about. The uniforms were all placed on the walls, in the little spaces that he used to keep just his old suits. They were lit from the bottom, giving them the air of officialness that she thought Tony was striving for. She glanced at Peter's new uniform, and the much improved Captain America's suit that, thankfully, got rid of the tights and employed a pair of much more durable looking pants.

She crossed the space and looked up at it, biting her lip as she imagined what it would look like on Steve. Granted, she was of the opinion that everything would look good on him, but there was something about the lines of that new suit that she thought would be a cut above the rest.

"That's yours," Tony said, ripping her attention away. She blushed and cleared her throat, ignoring the look on Tony's face as she turned to the suit he was pointing to. "It's still the MK One, but I think it'll get the job done for now."

Avery had been speechless a lot in her life, but never in this way. She walked over to it, hand covering her mouth. It was a deep grey, almost black, and looked like it was made to her exact measurements. It would be like Natasha's uniform, except for it's lack of sleeves and tall, thigh high boots that were covered in almost armor-like gold plates. Sewn into the grey fabric was golden thread, so subtle she almost didn't notice them, that mirrored the pattern of her shield, although she didn't know how Tony was able to mimic that.

"Did you fix the knife problem?" Peter asked, already pulling his new uniform down and running his fingers over it.

Avery reached her hand out and touched the fabric on the thigh, gripping it as she shook her head. "It's for me?"

"I've been trying to keep busy. Figured you could use something like this."

"Tony, I…"

"Try it on before you thank me."

Avery's hand were shaking slightly as she grabbed the suit and pulled it off. It was impossibly light in her hands and soft, like it would be a second skin once she actually put it on. She grabbed the boots and tucked them under her arm, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet with excitement.

She had never actually given much thought to the idea of wearing some kind of uniform or a costume like the others did. It seemed natural for Steve, and necessary for Tony and Peter, but she had never thought about it for herself.

"Over there," Tony said, pointing over to the other side of the lab. Avery smiled at him and practically sprinted over to where he pointed, entire body now buzzing with excitement. "Make sure you put it on properly, I need to know if it fits," Tony called, although she had already shut the door behind her. "Cap, I added those things you wanted."

"Thanks, Tony."

"Stab me."

"I'm not going to stab you."

"Come on. I need to know if it works," Peter practically whined.

Avery stripped off her dress and dropped them on the ground, not bothering to fold them. She toed off her sandals next, kicking them aside to probably be forgotten about entirely. She left her underwear and bra on, not too keen to put on the uniform without anything on underneath it just in case it didn't fit. She held the uniform out at arm's length, trying to figure out how to put it on. There were multiple layers, little pieces that looked like they weren't needed but she wouldn't judge until she was wearing it. She figured the pants would be first, so she dropped the other pieces and shimmied into the tight pants.

She was right in her assumption that they would fit like a glove, but she was surprised by just how much she liked them. They were by far the most comfortable pants she had ever worn. She bent over and looked at her backside, remembering vividly when she had done that so many months ago in her S.H.I.E.L.D. issue pants in front of Clint. That seemed liked ages ago. Still, she couldn't help but smirk at how far she had come since then.

Then, she had been a squirrelly little borderline nutcase with no path beyond the one that headed directly into either prison or a life of pure solitude. She had tried to do the latter and she found it wouldn't work for her long term.

"Hurry up, kid. Pepps will notice if I'm gone from all my adoring fans for too long," Tony called, startling her again.

"There's so many pieces."

"Please. You were taking so long because this is the first time a pair of pants has actually fit your ass in years."

"They're a bit tight."

"The correct term is perfectly fitted. You'll thank me later when all the dates start rolling in," Tony said, and she could practically see the smirk on his face.

"I'm not wearing the right underwear for this." Avery ran her hand over her backside and cringed at the visible underwear lines. She pulled on the under armor piece next and tucked it into the pants before she slipped on the thicker leather part, that reminded her of a vest with a breastplate, on top and zipped it all the way up.

Not bothering to put the shoes on before she showed them the full ensemble, Avery stepped out, feeling suddenly quite self-conscious when they all three turned to look at her. Rather than having to see their opinions, she bent down and slipped on the boots, grateful that Tony at least had the sense to not make them heeled, like the ones Natasha wore. Again, they fit her perfectly and made her feel like she could run a marathon in them, if she did that sort of thing.

When she was all booted up, she straightened up, squatting a bit for good measure to test the fit and feel.

"One more thing," Tony said, walking towards her with a mask in his hand that matched the fabric of the rest of her suit. "To hide that pretty face."

Steve made a noise, but covered it with a well-timed cough.

Avery took the mask and slipped it over her head, unsure of how she was going to see out of it. Instead of pure blackness, like she expected, she found that she was able to see the others perfectly clear, as if there was nothing between them but a piece of glass.

"Wow, Avery, you look scary," Peter said, hoping up onto one of the workbenches.

"Press your temple," Tony said, walking towards. She did as she was told, although she didn't know why. After a moment the place where she had been able to see her friends lit up like a computer. "Look at Steve."

She did, unsure of what she was going to see. She just saw Steve at first, but then a little outline of his body appeared on the edge of her vision and a heartbeat line danced across the top. As she looked at him, the heartbeat increased. She cleared her throat, unsure of how she was supposed to interpret that. As she looked at him and away from the other two, little symbols appear on the very edge, indicating to her where Tony and Peter were. "Vital signs?"

"And locations, once I can get everybody in uniform." She turned back to look at him and took off the mask.

"Do I get a name, too?"

"Actually…" Tony trailed off, tone indicating that he had done something she wouldn't like.

"What did you do?"

"It was more of a joke. An inside joke really, with just me and JARVIS," Tony said, raising his hands up defensively.

"Tony."

"I might have already given you one."

"What is it?" Avery asked, not really sure if she wanted to know.

"Pinocchio."

"Come again?"

"I thought it was funny at the time. In hindsight, it isn't my best idea, I will admit."

"You named me after a puppet?"

"I thought it was thematically appropriate."

Avery's mouth hung open as she struggled to understand his thought process. It was baffling and, at the same time, so very Tony-like that she couldn't bring herself to actually be mad at him. "You haven't," She paused, still a bit confused. "You haven't told anyone right? It's still workshoppable?"

"I might have let it slip to Barton once or twice. He liked the idea."

She opened her mouth to say something snarky, but when she felt a hand on her arm she took a step back from herself, realizing that it wasn't worth it. Tony had done something nice for her, _again,_ and she still hadn't found the right way to return the favor to him. She had asked him for a job and he had provided, and she repaid him by promptly leaving and not doing a thing for two months. He gave her a place to live, food to eat, and even clothes to wear. The least she could do is let him have a bit of fun with her name, even if it was the most god-awful thing he could have come up with.

Avery look over at Steve and nodded and he pulled his hand back, folding his arms over his chest as he turned his gaze back on Tony. "You should have asked her."

"I think it's wicked," Peter said. "Imagine it. Spider-man and Ironman, saving the day. Captain America and Pinocchio, defenders of the little guys, wearers of perfectly tailored suits."

"To save the day, you would actually have to finish your work, Parker, which you have yet to do even once." Tony shrugged at the look on Peter's face.

"Oh come on, Mr. Stark. I've told you I can do more than what you're giving me."

"You know the rules for the new suit, kid." Tony clapped his hands together, effectively cutting off any argument that Peter might have. He glowered at him but said nothing, crossing his arms over his chest moodily as he leaned back. "I've got adoring fans to get back to. Cap, Pepps will want you back at some point to cut the cake and deal with the rest of the birthday bells and whistles. Try not to make eyes at Aves for too long."

Avery and Steve rolled their eyes simultaneously, although she couldn't stop herself from imagining that Steve would do just that. It was flattering and ridiculous all at the same time. He was very clearly still hung up on Peggy, who was, by all account, beautiful and kind and clever and everything Avery was not.

"I'll be down in a minute," Steve said to Tony, nodding at him as he ducked out of the room. He waited for the glass door to slide shut before he turned back to them. "You two better be quick."

"In and out, no problems. We'll go with stealth," Peter said, fiddling with something on his wrist. "Where's th... Ah, here we go." He clicked something, turning a little dial over to the left and his entire suit darkened. It was still red, but, in the right lighting, she knew it would look like black. "Yours does it too."

"Here," Steve said, moving to stand in front of her as he grabbed her shoulder and twiddled the small dial tucked away into one of the natural folds of the suit. It was so tiny she knew she wouldn't have spotted it on her own, so she smiled at him in thanks and looked down at the fabric of her suit. It flashed pure white first, causing her to jump slightly. He clicked it again and the entire thing, including the gold threading, turned black. "Keep your mask on. It'll keep you safer and your identity hidden."

"Why is this tower so tall?" Peter asked, standing next to the window.

"This isn't a good idea," Steve said, still hovering uncomfortably close to Avery. "Avery, you've just controlled your powers. You haven't even been back an hour."

"Yeah, well, we would have done this two months ago, but _someone_ had to go AWOL."

"That was for her own good Peter, I told you that. If you wanted someone to come with you that bad, I told you I would do it. In fact," Steve paused, moving slightly away from Avery as he spoke to Peter. "It would be better if I did it than Avery."

"I don't need someone to hold my hand through it, Steve," Peter said, sounding like a seventeen-year old once again.

"Hey, it's not worth getting mad at each other over. I promised I'd help, so I will," Avery said, crossing the space quickly to place a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom, then we can go," Peter said, shrugging off her hand and walking quickly over to the little bathroom she had just changed in.

"You'll be careful?"

"Of course." Avery smiled at Steve over her shoulder, noticing that the same slightly off look was on his face as before. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Liar," Avery said, turning around. She raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for him to cave and tell her that she was right.

"I thought you didn't like to use those powers."

"I'm offended that you would even think that, Steve." She kept her tone playful as she walked back over to him. "It never occurred to you that I might just know you well enough without having to resort to the dirty tricks?"

"No, it didn't, actually."

"Well, there's you're problem. So come on, spill. I'm worried about you. It's your birthday, you're supposed to be happy."

"You're the only person who's asked me that."

"That's because I'm your friend, Steve. Just because I was gone for two months, it doesn't change that."

"I'm not mad at you for leaving."

"Then what is it? Because it seems like everybody is off. Peter's being a moody, which might be because he's a teenager, or it could be because he's mad about something, Tony is clearly tinkering instead of emoting, and you won't tell me what's actually bothering you, even though something clearly is."

"Everything is harder than I thought it would be. You made it easier and then you were gone and I was back to having nobody who understood what I was going through."

"That sounds like blame."

Steve scowled and looked down at his feet, giving her the opportunity to move back over to him. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Oh come on, don't do that." She placed her hand on his arm and squeezed. "You're the best friend I've had in a long time. It was shitty of me to leave, but I'm back and I feel so happy and I want you to be happy too."

"I'm…"

"No, listen. If you being happy means that you dump all your shit on me, then let's do it. I'm here to listen, and help you talk through it, and anything else you need." She squeezed his arm again. "So, you're going to save me a piece of cake and tonight, when I get back, you and me are going to talk and if you want to, you can tell me what's really up, okay?"

He looked up at her and for a horrible moment she thought she might have come on too strong, but then he nodded and finally smiled back at her. Avery relaxed and smiled back at him, pulling her hand back.

"Ready, Avery?"

"I better get back. Come see me after," Steve confirmed, giving her one more look before he walked out of the lab. He paused by the door. "You be careful too, Peter. Get in and get out, don't take any more risks than necessary."

"Of course. Once we get the information we need, we're gone," Peter said, walking over to stand next to Avery.

Once Steve was gone, Peter gave her a knowing smirk.

"What were you doing, taking a shit?"

"No, listening to you two," Peter said, ignoring the scathing look she gave him. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the balcony, popping open the small door and stepping outside. "He's been really pissy the entire time you were gone. I'm surprised you could get anything out of him."

"I don't think a couple of months of adjustment is too bad."

Peter pulled on his mask and peered over the edge, holding out his arms to stretch a few times. "Hop on."

"What? No," Avery said, realizing how he was planning on getting to Oscorp a moment later than she should have. "Oh no, that's not happening."

"It's the best way."

"I'm going to ralph on you."

"Mr. Stark would kill you if you ruined the new suit he made me."

"No, Peter. No fuc…"

He wrapped his arms around her stomach and threw them off the side of the building, ignoring the way she screamed in his ears. In fact, she might have heard him laughing just a bit, but she probably imagined it. It could have been nothing more than the wind rushing past her ears and her crippling fear of heights kicking in, but the momentum switched again and she lost all ability to focus on anything except all the ways she was going to get back at Peter for this.


	3. Chapter 3

"I thought you were kidding about throwing up." Avery gave Peter the dirtiest glare she could muster and wiped her mouth, feeling like she might just vomit again, just to spite him if he tried to say something else. He did have the decency to look like he felt just the least bit sorry for her, but that only lasted a moment before he was smirking at her again and clapping his hands together as he thought of something else snarky to say. "Did you at least miss the poor people on the street?"

"No, I aimed for them," Avery said, shuddering a bit as she felt another round of sick come over her. She bent over at her waist and heaved and, although nothing came out, she felt slightly better.

"You look green."

"I told you I don't like heights."

She made the mistake of looking down at the street below them and immediately felt the nausea return. Covering her mouth with her hand, she stumbled backwards, making sure she was at a safe distance. She leaned over and put her head between her legs, breathing in and out deeply until she finally felt the nausea subside.

"There's ventilation on top of the building."

"So you want us to shinny through there and hope for the best."

"I know where we're going," Peter said, hoping up onto the lip of the building. He squatted and extended his arm, gesturing to the right side of the building. "If we get into the right vent, it should take us directly above the room where they keep the genetic material."

"How much ventilation ducts are we talking about?" Avery asked, wishing more than anything that she had a bit of water to wash out her mouth. "Do I smell like vomit?"

"Breathe on me." Avery blew a puff of air in his direction, cringing at the smell. "It's not bad. I mean, I wouldn't go around kissing anybody, but at a distance, it's no worse than normal."

"I've been told I smell like roses and honey."

"By who? Someone catcalling you on the street?" Peter asked, smirking at her. She could only see the bottom of his face, but she could tell that he was just messing with her. Still, she cupped her hand in front of her mouth and let out a few puffs of air, smelling her breath just in case. She supposed it was lucky she hadn't had anything to eat that day or it would be decidedly worse.

"My first boyfriend," Avery said, wiping her hand on her uniform.

"Boyfriend? Well aren't you just full of surprises." Peter went back to looking at the building, measuring the distance with his hand. He tilted his head to the side and started counting on his fingers, muttering to himself.

"Yeah. His name was Zeke. We dated in high school," Avery said, thinking about him for the first time in years. It felt like a lifetime ago and she couldn't exactly say that she wished she could back, but she did smile just a bit thinking about it.

"No need to get schmoopy on me."

"I didn't know toddlers watched Seinfeld," Avery said, moving to stand behind him, although she still made sure to keep enough distance away from the edge of the building, just in case her legs decided to stop working and she tipped over the side.

"I've also seen Star Wars and listened to the Beatles, believe it or not."

"Never heard of them," Avery said, winking at him when he looked over his shoulder at her. "You think you have it figured out?"

"Yeah, I think I'm good. You?"

Avery nodded, although she had no desire whatsoever to do it again. He held out his arm and gestured for her to move closer. He hooked it around her waist and pulled his mask down with his other hand and she did the same, mentally preparing herself for the intense vertigo, and probable fresh bought of nausea that she was about to feel. His hand tightened its hold on her as he pushed off. Her stomach went straight into her butt, but she focused on not throwing up again.

They freefell for a moment before he shot a web up to the side off Oscorp, stopping their momentum and pulling them upwards. He tightened his grip, keeping her secure as they soared up to the top of the building. Peter shot another web and yanked, causing them to move even faster. The edge of the building came towards them much more quickly than Avery expected and she closed her eyes, preparing herself for the impact just in case. When nothing came, she cracked open one eye, refusing to look at the ground and instead choosing to focus on the underside of Peter's chin. His muscles were clenched with the effort of both keeping her from slipping while simultaneously slowing them down to brace for impact with the top of the building.

"Bend your legs."

She did as she was told and unclenched her stomach muscles, knowing that it would hurt more if she was tense.

They landed with a thud and Avery went rolling forward, skidding to a stop with her back to an air vent.

"Well that was graceful." Avery groaned. Peter grabbed her hand and pulled her into a sitting position, patting her on the back. "Lookey here. You found the vent." He tapped the metal and nudged her with his knee. "And you didn't puke this time."

Avery groaned again and pulled herself up into a standing position. She brushed off the little pebbles of her side and back and turned around to face the air vent. She snorted immediately and shook her head, stepping back. "There's no way we're fitting in there."

"We've both got boy hips."

"It's the size of one asscheek."

To prove his point, Peter hopped up on top of it and made himself as thin as possible. Much to her displeasure, he would just about fit, meaning she would as well. Sensing that she had no argument, he smirked and bent down, prying it open with the tips of his fingers. He waved it in front of her and tossed it aside, the noise causing her to cringe.

"In you go."

"I'm not going first."

"I have to lower you down until you reach the bottom. If I go first you'll have to jump."

"I'll go first."

"That's what I thought." Peter leaned back and held out his arms, making room for her on the edge of the vent. "I'm going to wrap this around your wrist."

Avery nodded and held out her hand, glancing down into the blackness of the vent. She couldn't see how far down it went, but she had the most horrible feeling that she didn't want to know. Peter wrapped a web around her wrist and pulled it, testing the tensile strength and to see whether or not it would cut off her circulation. When her hand showed no sign of turning purple, he leaned back even more and braced himself.

Taking a deep breath, she lowered herself inside, blinking rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the light level.

"You good?"

"Yeah," Avery said, squeezing her fingers around the web.

"Just don't think about it."

"Too late." She heard him laugh as he started to lower her down. She spread her legs ever so slightly so that she could feel the sides of the vent, and counted her breathing. When she made it to ten, she started over, doing it again as she breathed in and out. When her feet finally touched down, she immediately let out a sigh of relief. "Okay!"

"Move back!"

She yanked her arm down, breaking the connection of the web and bent at her waist. She barely had enough room to move, but she was able to maneuver herself backwards. Her lower back bumped against the turn in the vent and she was forced to walk on her hands and knees. Just as she moved back, Peter slammed down in front of her, startling her enough for her to let out a yelp.

"Dignified," Peter said, hand pressing against her face as he tried to push her back to make room for him.

"Stop it," She said, shoving his hand off.

"Then move."

"Give me a minute."

Peter groaned and dropped down into the same position as her. She walked backwards on her hands and knees as best she could, ignoring the dust and bugs that crunched under her hands. "We need to crawl for about thirty feet. Then we should be right above it."

"You sure?" Avery paused. Something wet squished beneath her fingers. She shuddered but kept moving, making up her mind that she was going to use Peter's suit to wipe whatever it was off her hands once they had room enough to move. "It's a big building."

"That lab has its own ventilation for security measures."

"What about the one's in the lab?" Avery passed over a grate and peered down, holding up a hand to stop Peter from moving back and running into her. "Is this is?"

"Let me see." Peter shuffled around in his spot and turned to face her. He looked down at the grate and pressed as close as he could to it, turning his head left and right to get a better look. "Yep, this is it."

"What's the plan?" Avery asked, pulling down her mask again. The heads-up display was disorienting, as it adjusted to the light and enclosed space. She looked at Peter, taking note of his slightly increased heart rate and body temperature before she looked back at the grate. Peter pried his fingers underneath the grate and yanked. The metal groaned in protest but it eventually lifted up, leaving just enough room for them to shimmy through.

"I'm going to turn off the security."

He jumped down and disappeared from her sight. She heard him bustling around the small lab. Something beeped and Peter let out a small whoop before he reappeared and gestured for her to follow. She turned around and lowered her legs down. Avery kicked her legs, looking for the ground until she felt a hand wrap around her ankle and pull her down. He caught her before she hit and set her up right on her feet, hurrying back over to the computer he had pulled out from a panel in the wall.

"I'm going to read off the numbers of the ones Gwen said and I want you to find them and tell me how many there are." Peter pointed to the storage towers that lined the room and Avery walked over to the first, eyes scanning it to see if she could find what he was talking about.

They were kept cold enough so that the samples did not deteriorate. She let her hand hover over the glass, feeling the temperature change, and looked back over her shoulder, waiting for him to give her instructions.

"Ursus arctos."

Avery blinked.

"Grizzly."

"I knew that." She looked through the storage, eyes bouncing from each label, feeling like she must have read at least a hundred different labels before she finally saw it. Each vial was stored one behind the other, forcing her to pull out the little draw they were kept on so that she could count them. One space was empty. "Nine."

"This says ten."

"Who was the last person to access this?"

"Nobody?"

"That can't be right. One is clearly missing."

"This is what is says."

Avery pushed the drawer back in and walked over to him, ducking around his shoulder so she could see the screen for herself. "Check the others that Gwen said didn't match up. Maybe those have a name."

"I'll check," Peter said, nodding in time with the speed of his typing. It made him look a bit like a bobble head. She smiled and turned back to the cases, waiting for more instructions. "So, how mad are you actually about Pinocchio."

Avery didn't mean to, but she felt herself cringe.

"Did I seem mad?"

"A bit," Peter said casually, leaning closer to the screen. "Steve kept trying to get Tony to back off once he found out about it."

"Has he been okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"He seemed off. I just thought he might be a bit happier."

"Maybe he missed you too much," Peter said, throwing a look over his shoulder as he kept typing.

"Stop."

"What? I'm being serious."

Avery blushed. "Was he able to get in contact with Peggy?" She asked, blowing past that in favor of something less embarrassing.

"I think so, but you should ask him."

"Oh no. Is it bad?"

"No. Well, for him probably, but I don't thin…Ah ha!"

"What?"

"So nobody accessed the individual storage cases on the day of the Chitauri or the next couple of days after."

"Except for Gwen," Avery filled in, crossing the small space so that she could look at the computer again. "Is she listed?"

"She is."

"So you didn't find any information?"

"No, that's the thing. No one accessed the cases, but someone did come in the room." Peter turned around to face her.

"Is it someone we know?"

"No. But they are an employee of Oscorp. Max Dillon."

"But that's not that weird." Avery deflated slightly, having the horrible feeling that they were going to get nowhere. "If he works here then he would be able to access this area no problem."

"He's never been here before though. Look," He said, pointing to the screen. He grabbed her arm to pull her closer, drawing her attention to the little picture of Max and the information next to it.

"So you think it's suspicious?"

"Most definitely." Peter turned around to face her, folding his arms over is chest.

"So what do you want to do ne…" Avery froze, mouth hanging open. There were footsteps outside the door, moving down the hallway towards them. She looked over at Peter and gestured wildly, chest muscles convulsing. "What do we do?" She mouthed, pointing to the door.

"Give me your foot," Peter hissed back, rapidly closing the computer panel and pushing it back into the wall. He wiped his hands over it, she assumed getting rid of his prints, and went over to the cases she touched and did the same thing to them as well.

Avery placed her foot in his hand and braced herself on his shoulders, wondering exactly what he was going to do. He glanced up to the open vent and lined them up, cluing her in to what he planned on doing. Her eyes widened just as he thrust his arms up, shooting her towards the ceiling like a small rocket. The silver opening rushed towards her much faster than she would have liked and she slammed face first into the top. Her head made an obnoxiously loud banging noise as she threw her arms down to stop herself from falling right back down. The lips of the vent cut into her skin, but she managed to catch herself just in time.

She pulled herself through and scrambled sideways, making room for Peter to follow after her.

He jumped in after her, pulling the grate with him, and held it in place just before the person walked into the room.

They both held their breath, waiting to see if they were going to get caught. Neither of them moved, both too anxious to even think about it. Instead, they both held their stagnant positions, each one glancing down at the grate to watch the security guard as he passed through.

"I thought you said it would be empty," Avery mouthed angrily.

Peter shook his head.

After a moment the security guard turned around and walked out, causing them both to visibly relax. Peter let go of the grate, now completely unbothered by the clanging sound it made as he moved back.

"Let's head back."

"Wait. Aren't we going to try and get more information on Max Dillon?"

"Yes, but Tony is going to help us with that."

"You've got this all figured out, huh?" Avery asked, rubbing her arms where the metal vent had cut into them. "Did I cut a vein?" She asked, holding up her arms so Peter could look.

"No," Peter said, crawling back in the direction they came from. "Let's go. I highly doubt someone will save me a piece of cake."

"Steve is saving me one."

Peter snorted. "Of course he is." When he reached the end of the vent and was finally able to stand up, he reached his arms up, holding one arm outstretched for just a moment before he shot a web at the edge of the vent and disappeared. Avery crawled along after him until she reached the same spot, happy when she was able to stand up again. As soon as she did, she felt a web wrap around her shoulder and yank her upwards. Peter moved to the side when she reached him, pulling her out completely until they were both standing side by side on the roof.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing," He said nonchalantly, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer. She moved so that she was standing behind him and raised up onto her tiptoes, wrapping both her arms around his back so tightly she could feel her muscles start to strain. She wasn't willing to relax, however, knowing that he was about to jump off the building once again. He moved closer to the edge, arm still bent back to keep her steady, before he jumped off once again and incredibly swooping feeling returned to her gut.

She wrapped her legs around him and closed her eyes, imagining that in another few seconds they would be back to the tower and it wouldn't feel quite as terrible.

"Hang on!" He shouted over the wind, as if she already wasn't doing that very thing. The momentum changed suddenly and they turned in the opposite direction.

She cracked open one eye, managing to catch a glimpse of Stark Tower in the exact opposite direction they were heading.

"The tower is that way," She said, digging her fingers into his chest.

"I heard someone scream," He said. She closed her eyes again when they started descending towards the ground at a staggering speed. "We need to see if we can help."

Her arms felt numb by the time they skidded to a halt and he peeled her off his back. She stumbled away and caught herself on a dumpster. Peter walked over to her and touched the side of her face, making sure she was still wearing her mask she thought, before he jumped up onto the scaffolding and out of sight, leaving her to look around the alley alone.

It would help if she knew what exactly he had heard to know what she was looking for. But then again, she was a smart enough lady to figure out when something was wrong, even if she was entirely new to the whole vigilante justice thing.

When she stepped on something wet, she looked down, hoping for literally anything but blood. She would take a spilled soda, a slick of oil, a bit of leaking trash water. Hell, she would even take a puddle of pee. None of it was meant to be and she immediately jumped to the left and put up her hands, a small shield engulfing the left while her right clenched into a fist. For a moment all she could hear was the sound of horns blaring and people laughing until someone grabbed her around the shoulder and yanked her backwards and punched her square in the side of the jaw.

Her feet slipped out from underneath her and as she stumbled, sending her crashing into their knees. He groaned and stepped back, hands still gripping her shoulders painfully.

"What the hell?" Avery groaned, reaching her hand up to try and pry his hand off her. She felt his sleeve and ran her fingers upwards, probing until she felt skin, and promptly dug down with her nails until she could feel that she drew blood.

The masked man hauled her up and slammed her into the wall, fingers digging into her shoulder muscles as he tried to get her to stop squirming. He had the advantage on her in both height and weight, but she was able to drop down to the ground and kick him squarely in the knee cap. He stumbled back slightly, groaning as he bent down to touch where she had hit him. He advanced on her again, forcing her to jump out of the way and scramble over to the trashcan.

"Back off!" She yelled, holding her arms up to block any punches he might decide to throw her way.

His mouth quirked, head tilting sideways as soon as she spoke. His hands, which had been gripped into fists and held aloft, dropped ever so slightly as he observed her through his mask. She stared back, breathing heavily from the exertion and the adrenaline. "Who are you?" He asked, voice harsh and demanding.

His voice sounded so familiar to her in that moment, although she couldn't even begin to try and place it. He took a step towards her, hands raised again. Out of reflex, she spread her palms out, forming a small shield between them. It illuminated the alleyway and warmed the already humid air even further. He was obscured through it, but he made no indication that he noticed, even as he moved towards with a raised fist, causing her to lean back, confusion written all over her face.

"I'm Avery. Who are you?"

"Avery," He said, testing her name like it might mean something to him. After another tense moment, he shook his head and sighed, dropping his arms. "Avery. The girl who doesn't watch where she's going."

"Matt?" They met once and she had embarrassed herself so thoroughly she had promptly pushed it from her mind in favor or more important things. To meet him again, in a dirty alley while she and Peter went on a mugger goose chase, well, that was just ludicrous. "What are you doing here? Why are you dressed like that?" She paused again, realizing the situation was even more ridiculous than she originally thought. "Aren't you blind?"

He smirked.

Avery waved her hand and dropped the shield, folding her arms over her chest. As they stood there staring at each other, Matt still smirking, Peter jogged over to them.

She glowered at Matt and bent down to wipe it clean, hissing at the sting. "The police are on their way, so we should get going…" Peter said, trailing off when he noticed the other man still standing there. "So, I'm guessing you're not working with the wonder twins over there."

Matt said nothing. Avery stood back up and fixed him with a sharp glare that she knew he wouldn't be able to see. It felt better to do so, if even if only for herself, to make up for being punched. When he made no sign of talking in front of Peter, Avery rolled her eyes and turned to Peter, plastering a sweet smile on her face that she hoped would endear her to him. "Would you go wait up there?" She pointed to the top of the building, knowing that he would still be able to hear them, but thinking it would make Matt more likely to talk if he thought they were alone.

She felt slightly bad for being tricky and taking advantage of his lack of eyesight, but decided that, in this case, it was probably okay given the circumstances. Peter looked between them again, emotion written all over his face despite her not being able to see a thing apart from the honeycombed eyes and the ribbing of black on the red fabric. He nodded after a moment and took a step back, extending his arm up to shoot a web to the top of the building.

He disappeared without a sound and yet Matt tilted his head up and followed Peter's path perfectly. Again, Avery cocked her head to the side and stared him down. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to stop a mugging. What are _you_ doing?"

"Same."

"I wasn't aware you were friends with Spider-man." He made it sound like an accusation, which irked her for some unfathomable reason.

"For a blind man you certainly see a lot more than you let on."

"What was that thing you put between us?" He asked, taking a step towards her. She wasn't sure if he meant it to be threatening, but she felt uneasy all the same. She dropped her hands to her sides and clenched her fists, trying not to breathe too loudly. She didn't want him to know how nervous she suddenly was, although she thought he might already know. "I could feel it."

Avery bit her lip, unsure of whether or not she felt comfortable telling him. Logically, there was no reason not to, and if he had been able to see it, she would never even consider trying to lie to him. Realizing this she sighed and looked down at her feet, thinking of how best to explain it someone who didn't have the requisite awareness of all the relevant information. She sure as hell wasn't about to tell him about the Asgardian thing, so she took a little bit longer to think of how she could do it without straight up lying to his face. It was actually much harder than she would have thought, resulting in a prolonged silence that was decidedly more awkward than it had any right to be.

He cleared his throat, prompting her.

"It's genetic."

"What?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the sound of police sirens pulling up close to the end of the alley. He immediately bolted, running towards the fire escape without waiting to see if she was going to follow. She wasn't nearly done with him, and she didn't fancy explaining the situation to the police and ending up on the news, so she sighed and followed after him. She took the rickety stairs two at a time, keeping her gaze on the back of the black mask he wore just in case he decided to ditch. Normally, she would welcome the opportunity to avoid answering someone's questions or asking her own, but she found that she was unnaturally curious about why and, more importantly how, a blind man ended up kicking the shit randoms he happened upon in the pursuit of stopping the occasional mugging.

He seemed hell-bent on getting away from her, jumping up and grabbing onto the edge of the building so he pull himself over and out of her sight.

"Son of a bitch," Avery cursed, winging, perhaps unnecessarily, at the effort required to haul herself up to the rooftop.

"That seems a little harsh," He said, waiting for her at the top of the roof, to her great surprise. "Genetic anomaly?"

"Is that what you're going with?" Peter asked, lounging on a large air duct. He had pulled his mask up so that his mouth was showing. "Hi, nice to meet you Avery's friend. I'm your friendly neighborhood Spid…"

"Man. Yes I know."

"Snappy. Okay, Avery. You ready?"

"Give me five more minutes."

"You're going to miss his party."

"I'm not going to miss his party. Just go over there," She said, gesturing over to the other side of the building. He sighed and nodded, making a gesture with his hands that caused her to smirk. Even though she wasn't nervous about missing Steve's party, considering it was only about eight o'clock, she still felt a bubble of anxiety creep up. It had been two months and the most she had seen of him was a quick conversation as she dropped off her stuff and Mandu at the tower before Peter swooped in. "Sorry," Avery apologized once she was sure Peter was far enough away that it seemed like he wasn't eavesdropping, even though he absolutely without a doubt was. "Anyway, I'm not going to tell you any more until you give me something."

"Not going to happen."Avery tried not growl in frustration but she couldn't help herself. When she did, he smirked again. "We've all got our secrets. I'd like to keep mine, if you don't mind."

"I do, actually. You're blind. What if someone has a gun?"

"I can handle it."

"Look, Matt, I don't know anything about you…"

"Let's keep it that way. I thought you were getting mugged, so I stepped in. End of discussion."

"No, it's not. Are you going to keep doing this?" Avery asked, folding her arms across her chest. "Can you at least take the mask off?"

"No."

"It's just me up here."

"And Spider-man, who's not that subtle by the way."

"I'm surprised you're not starstruck. Most people are when they run into him."

"You spend a lot of time with him?"

"If you're not going to tell me about your job moonlighting as a vigilante, then I'm not going to tell you anything else."

"You could at least tell me what you're doing in Hell's Kitchen."

"Passing through." Avery was purposely vague, hoping that the lack of information would inspire just enough annoyance to get him talking.

"Don't come back."

"Excuse me?"

"I've got this area covered," He said, surprising her with how possessive of the little ten block area he sounded.

"How many times have you done this?"

"That's none of your business."

Avery bristled, hands clenching into fists. "I don't know you. I mostly don't care what you do with your time, but I need to know that this isn't going to be a habit."

"You literally have no control over what I do."

"It's going to keep me up at night."

"Why?"

"Because I'm an anxious person by nature, Matt," Avery snapped, reaching her end point with him. "And I don't like the idea of you doing this."

"You let Spider-man do it and he's seventeen."

"How on earth could you possibly know that?"

"I can smell him. No amount of deodorant will ever cover up the stench of teenage boy. And you, you smell like vomit…"

"I don't like heights."

"And oxygen, and Chanel, which I'm guessing rubbed off on you when you sat next to a wealthy woman on your flight this afternoon."

"How could you possibly know that?" Avery asked, taking a small step back.

"The same way I can tell that you hugged a man who likes to wear older aftershave, and have a cat that smells like old socks."

"He does. It's adorable."

"I see a lot more than most people Avery."

Avery wasn't comforted. In fact, she found that she liked the idea even less than before. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned forward, lowering her voice so that only he would hear her. She grabbed his arm and yanked him so that they were almost nose to nose. She ignored the fact that she still had puke breath, which was probably a thousand times worse to him that it was to her. "This is too dangerous to be doing. You're going to get hurt and then I'm going to read about it in the paper and then I'm going to feel bad and then I'll regret it for the rest of my life because I could have stopped you. Who knows, I might even turn to drugs or worse."

"Worse?"

"Buying everything from infomercials."

"I have a shamwow. It works well."

"That's not important."

"And you're invading my personal space."

"It's to prove a point." Avery leaned even closer. "Is it working?"

"Are you trying to intimidate me?"

"I don't want to have to hurt you." He had the nerve to start laughing. She blushed and stepped back, smoothing down the nonexistent wrinkles in her suit. "I could. If I wanted to."

"Why don't you show me?"

"What?"

"If you're so convinced that I'll get hurt that even you could hurt me, then why don't you show me?"

" _Even_ me?"

"Yeah, genetic seems like a pretty weak explanation, so I'm assuming you've got another reason for that thing you produced out of thin air." He was smirking at her and it made her even angrier, for some unfathomable reason. "Or do you not want to share that kind of thing with a complete stranger?"

"I get it. That's very nice. I'm just trying to be a decent person."

"I'm not your problem to worry about, Avery."

"Fine. Just don't come crying to me when you end up punching the wrong person in the face on accident and they kill you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Also, I'm going to have to tell my teammates about you."

"What?" His voice turned harsh once again. "You can't. It's not your secret to tell."

"Well, you did punch me in the face. Steve will probably have questions, Tony too, although he'll say I deserved it for some reason."

"Make something up."

"Why on earth would I do that?" Avery asked, interested to hear what kind of excuse he would come up.

"Because you think I'm attractive and doing that would ruin any chance of me ever asking you out on a date." Avery blushed and stepped back, putting some much needed space between them as she tried to keep from letting out any embarrassing noises that might "You're heart has been racing this entire time."

"That's the blood rushing to my newly formed shiner. Don't flatter yourself."

"So if I asked what you're doing this Friday night?"

"I'd say nothing, but only because I was going to watch movies with my cat, not because I'm sad or pathetic."

"Great. I'll call you."

"You don't know my number."

"I'll just call the Tower and ask for Tony Stark's new live-in," He said, smiling at her.

"I'll have you know that living situation is completely kosher. I have a job that is 100% legitimate and I might be getting close to being able to buy my own food soon."

"Wow, that's very impressive." Matt stepped back and smirked at her again. "I'll see you on Friday."

Avery couldn't stop the noise that time around. She let out a small squeak, nodding slightly at him with a dumbfounded look on her face. "What should I wear?"

"Something nice. We've got a party to go to."

"Okay."

She watched him until he reached the end of the roof, jumped over the side and disappeared from her sight entirely. The little butterflies that had sprung up in her stomach didn't go away, leaving her feeling a little squirrelier than she would have liked. That part confused her more than anything else, considering he had punched her in the face.

"You realize he just charmed you into dropping the subject."

"What?" Avery asked, turning around to look at Peter with a dumbfounded look on her face. He dropped down onto the roof next to her, gesturing with his chin in the direction of where Matt had just been standing."He asked me out," Avery said slowly, processing it as she said it out loud. "That's weird right?"

"Why?"

"I don't know. One minute we were arguing and the next he was asking me out."

"And I heard you say yes."

"I know. Why did I do that? That's even weirder."

"You know you have to go, right?"

"What if he tries to kill me? What if that's his plan, flatter me, even though he had no reason to because I smell like the floor of a movie theater, get me alone, and then kill me because I know his secret identity," She breathed out. "Peter, oh my god. He's going to kill me and keep my head as a trophy."

"Okay, now you're just being stupid."

"Why did I say yes?"

"Because he's hot."

"What?"

Peter shrugged. "Objectively speaking, he's pleasing to look at."

"What am I going to wear?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to absolute love watching this entire thing unfold. It's going to be fascinating. "

"Shut up."

"Hey, maybe next time you guys can really spice things up and he'll kick you right in the boob. You'd probably agree to marry him if he did that."

"I don't make good decisions under pressure. I thought we had already established this."

"Like I said, fascinating. Now hop on, the cops will be searching the surrounding area and I don't trust all those socialites to not eat all the cake." He pulled off his mask so that she could see the bottom of his face. "Besides, we just finished our first mission together and neither of us died. I think that's a cause for celebration."

"Did you think something bad was going to happen?" Avery asked, moving to stand behind him as he once again crouched so that she could wrap her arms around him.

"With you? Always."

"Do you think I could sneak some liquor from Tony's bar while he's distracted with his guests?"

"Yes. But I'd totally at you out to Steve."

"Oh come on!"

"Consider it payback for making me puke."


	4. Chapter 4

Avery tilted her chin to the side and looked at the fresh bruise with a scowl on her face. It was already a deep purple, mottled, and distinctly shaped like Matt's fists. The longer she stared at it, the more upset she got at herself for even entertaining the idea of going on a date with him, let alone actually agreeing to it. Stepping closer to the mirror, Avery touched her skin, increasingly unhappy with herself.

Her evening had started out well enough. Being back in New York felt better than she thought it would. Seeing her friends was obviously a good thing, and no longer living in crippling isolation, while exactly what she needed, was something she found wasn't nearly as stressful as she thought it would be. Granted, it had been a grand total of eight hours, but she didn't feel the deep panic in her gut like she had almost constantly before she left.

But then everything went tits up.

"You can probably cover it with some make up," Peter said, standing next to her with a vaguely sympathetic look on his face. He had peeled off the upper half of his uniform the moment they touched down on the balcony outside the private part of the tower and was clearly waiting for her to turn around so he could take off the rest. She imagined he was just as sweaty as her, but she was too distracted by the sad state of her face to bother with changing back into the clothes she had been wearing earlier. "We should be probably tell Tony about Oscorp."

"We don't know anything yet. We have a name, which probably means nothing, and no clue about where those samples would go. If they're even still in the city."

"It's been two months. Why would they be?"

"Biological samples are hard to sell, maybe?"

"There's a pretty robust black market out of the docks in Hell's Kitchen," Peter said, although he didn't sound convinced.

"We can't wait for them to crop up, though." Avery glanced over her shoulder at him. "Someone could have already weaponized them."

Peter nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Maybe that guy from tonight would know."

Avery immediately scowled and turned back to her reflection. "No."

"I'm not the one who agreed to go on a date with him."

"That's a low blow," Avery said, touching her chin once again. "How am I going to explain this to Steve and Tony?"

"The truth."

"Well that's the stupidest suggestion you've ever made."

"Is that because you don't want Steve to know you said yes to date with someone else?"

"Shut up. And stop looking so smug. Do something useful and go to my room and get my makeup?" She asked, lips pursing as she turned her head to the other side and the light hit the, quite frankly, impressive bruise in a different way. "It's in the carry on bag I took with me on the plane. It's by the bed."

"Yeah, do you need anything else?"

Avery tore her gaze away from her own reflection and looked over at him, confused as to why he was being so agreeable, before she decided not to question it. "No, thank you."

He nodded and walked out of the workshop, leaving her to her own thoughts.

"Avery, are you in here?"

Avery dropped to the floor immediately, brain instantly freezing. She hadn't anticipated Steve showing up so quickly and she hadn't yet come up with a reasonable excuse that he would buy. She didn't like the idea of flat out lying to him, and he would probably know anyway from the sound of her increased heartbeat and her tendency to avoid eye contact, but she also didn't much like the idea of telling him that she had not only been punched, but she had then agreed to go out on a date with said puncher.

His footsteps moved closer and stopped, making Avery think, for a brief moment, that she might have fooled him.

"I can see your reflection."

Avery inwardly cursed and looked down at her feet for a moment, mentally preparing herself to face his barrage of question, still not quite sure how she would answer him, before she finally stood up and smiled at him.

"Hey, Steve. Did you get that piece of cake for me?"

Subterfuge had always worked for her in the past. In fact, it was probably her best defense given her inability to talk herself out of wet paper bag. She underestimated him, however, and the moment she stood up, he crossed the small space between them and planted himself in front of her, one hand on her shoulder, the other setting down the plate he brought with him.

"What happened to you? Who did that?"

"I got punched," Avery said, trying to turn her chin so that he couldn't see it.

"I know. I'm an expert on getting punched. I'm asking you how it happened and who did it."

"Yeah, I heard that. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to say."

"The truth," Steve said, as it was the most obvious thing in the world. The truth, however, was embarrassing and uncomfortable and she didn't know how she was going to tell him without looking like a complete idiot.

"Is that for me?" She asked, sidestepping him so she could grab the plate with the bright blue piece of cake on it. "It matches your eyes." Steve grabbed it before she could and held it above her head. "Hey!"

"Tell me."

"It's not bad."

"Someone punched you the face. That qualifies as bad, Aves."

Her stomach went all gooey when he said the nickname so casually, but she pushed the feeling away.

Avery folded her arms over her chest and stopped reaching for the cake, sensing that they were edging close to an impasse. "They didn't do it on purpose."

"That still tells me nothing."

"You're not going to drop it, are you?"

"No, not even close." Avery bit her lip and looked down at her feet again, feeling a bubble of shame building in her chest. It was bad enough that she had been a walking disaster in the field with Peter, the reality of which seemed to be hitting her in full in that moment, but she also had gone and done the one thing that she always tried to avoid. Being pathetic. "Avery," He pressed, although there was nothing in his tone that made her feel any sort of pressure. Realizing she would just better off if she got it out of the way quickly, a bit like pulling off a Band-Aid, rather than drawing it out for much longer than necessary, she buried folded her hands behind her back and began at the beginning.

"We were coming back from Oscorp and Peter heard someone getting mugged, so we stopped to help them." She looked back up at him for a moment before she turned to her side and hopped up on one of the lab benches. "Peter went to help them and I stayed in the alley. At first I thought there was no one, but then he clocked me when I wasn't looking."

"Did you get him?"

"I mean, technically speaking, but he wasn't the one mugging people."

"Some random guy just punched you for no reason?" His voice raised slightly and she thought it might be out of anger at what happened and not at her own ineptitude, but she couldn't know for sure.

"Well, he thought I was the one mugging people."

"Why would he think that? You look nothing like a criminal?"

"Well, to be fair, criminals today don't go around wearing easily identifiable, bright red arm bands," She paused, realizing the poor timing of her joke. "Sorry, besides, he's blind."

"What?"

"Do you remember the day Loki left, when I stormed off because of what you said about Thor?"

"Yeah, I looked for you for hours, by the way."

"What? You never told me that." She wasn't sure why she was so horrified at the idea, but she was. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine. I was just worried about you," He said it with the kind of sincerity that turned her stomach to mush. Thankful, for the first time, for the bruise on her face for keeping her blush from showing too much, she struggled for a moment to continue as she tried to collect her thoughts.

"Anyway, as I was moodily walking around central park, I ran into this guy, literally, and we talked for like twenty seconds." When she paused, Steve moved the plate to the side and hopped up onto the workbench next to her, turning his body slightly so that he could give her his full attention. "Fast forward to tonight and it was him."

"He's the one who punched you? What's his name?"

"Matt."

"Matt what?"

Avery opened her mouth to answer him before she realized that she didn't even know his last name. "Oh god."

"What?"

"He asked me out and I said yes and I don't even know what his last name is," She said it more to herself than to Steve, but that didn't stop him from immediately reacting in the sort of sensible way that she should have when Matt asked her out.

"You're going on a date with him?" Steve asked, voice incredulous. "That's crazy."

"I'm not good under pressure. He just said it, and it didn't seem like such a bad idea at the time, but now in hindsight I'm really starting to see that my mother raised me to have better judgment than that, even if she herself was prone to going out on every single date with anyone who had a remotely penis shaped appendage that showed her the slightest bit of attention. One time she went out with a felon, while he was still in prison. His name was Steve, oddly enough, but as you can imagine, he was no you. Anyway, I was just trying to get Matt to tell me why he was skulking around in the alleys as a blind man, and he just sprung it on me while I was distracted."

A silence stretched between.

"That was a lot of information."

"I know. I'm working on my distilling skills."

"You're not going to actually go out with him, are you?"

Again, Avery wasn't quite sure what to say. The logical part of her told her that she shouldn't even consider it. It was dumb and borderline dangerous and she was right when she said her mother raised her to have better judgment. Another part of her, the part that was concerningly growing stronger, was starting to think that it wasn't the worst idea that she could imagine. There were definite benefits, such as getting Matt to tell her the truth about what was going on with him and figuring out how much he genuinely planned on doing it again. But then again, there was also the fact that she was seriously considering being alone with a man who she knew next to nothing about.

"I already said yes," Avery said. She wasn't quite sure why, but she had made up her mind. At some point she had decided that she needed to. Her own curiosity was too great to let it go and forget that Matt existed. "It will be quick and in a very public place."

"The fact that you think that's necessary is enough to tell you that you shouldn't go."

"It's not 1940, Steve. All dates are done in public now until you know he isn't creep or has an ear fetish."

"Is that a thing now?"

"It's always been a thing." Steve glowered at her, realizing that her rambling was distracting him from the real issue. Avery, sensing that they were going to start going around in circles, if they already weren't, took and step back and rubbed the back of her neck. "Listen, I'm beat. Can we talk about this over breakfast in the morning?"

She felt like a coward, skipping out on him like that, but she didn't see much of another option. He wasn't going to let her get away without explaining why she did it and that prospect made her feel like pure shit. She didn't like lying. She didn't like how it made her feel and she especially didn't like the fact that she had to do it so often. Avery thought, the longer she stood there trying to explain to him, the more likely it was that she would have to start lying and she didn't think she could do that to him. She thought it was better to just escape while she could.

"I'm flying to D.C. in the morning."

"When do you get back?"

"I don't know."

Steve put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, looking at her in a way that she couldn't explain but she knew it made her feel like sun-warmed dog shit. "I think I'm going to head to bed as well."

"Call me when you get to D.C., I guess."

He nodded and walked out of the lab, leaving her standing there with a slightly dumbfounded look on her face at how quickly the conversation ended.

"Good talk," Avery muttered to herself, looking back at her reflection.

Coming back to New York wasn't supposed to be this complicated. Steve wasn't supposed to be such a grump, Peter wasn't supposed to force her into a little bit of light corporate espionage, and she certainly wasn't supposed to get herself involved with a guy who had even more secrets than she did. Avery had told herself that she was done with that, that New Mexico was a fresh start that would allow her to be happier and less bothered when she came back to New York.

Matt, however, ruined that.

Because now she couldn't think about anything but him.

And not in the pleasant, curl your toes, giddy sort of way, but in the annoying way that gave her anxiety and made her feel like her control could slip at any moment.

Avery cleared her throat and stood up straighter, looking away from herself and back to the piece of cake that Steve had left behind.

She grabbed it and didn't bother with the fork, preferring to shovel it into her face with her fingers.

"Welcome home, Aves." She licked her fingers and sat down on the lab floor, looking out at the city as she continued eating the cake. "You've pissed off your new best friend, committed a few crimes, and agreed to go on a date with a possible young Charles Manson. But hey, at least your home."

* * *

Steve was gone when Avery woke up the morning. Natasha and Clint were as well, leaving the tower more quiet and empty than she had ever seen it.

She glanced at the cleanup crew as she walked towards the kitchen, her mind set on a cup of strong, black coffee and something full of carbohydrates. Bruce looked up at her when she walked in and, thankfully, said nothing about the now impressive bruise on her face. He even went so far as to pour the coffee into her outstretched mug.

"Morning," She said blandly, taking a deep swig as she sat down on one of the stools.

"Rough night?"

"Got in a fight with a rapid squirrel."

"Mean right hook for a squirrel," Bruce said, taking seat next to her, although he did move the stool as far away from her as humanly possible. "Steve was muttering under his breath this morning as he left. Your name came up a lot."

"I think he's mad at me," Avery said, voice sounding more miserable than she had meant it to. "Anyway, are Pepper and Tony around? I have work tomorrow, but I'm going to need some pretty intense cover up if I'm going to avoid questions about this." She gestured to the bruise on her face and pressed her mug against it.

"Pepper left for Shanghai at the same time as Steve, and Tony is in his lab."

Avery hummed, taking in the information. "Peter?"

"I'm assuming at home."

"Okay." She stood up and drained the rest of her drink, smiling at him as she moved back towards the elevator. "Thanks, Bruce."

"Someone left a note for you, by the way," Bruce said, stopping her before she could walk out of the room. "They didn't leave a name. He just said you would know what it's about."

"That sounds murdery."

"I checked already for poisons."

"Good looking out, Bruce," Avery said, walking back to Bruce so she could take the note from him. "Did you see what he looked like?"

"Why do you assume it's a man?"

"Because I agreed to go on a date with a potential serial killer. He seems like the kind to leave creepy notes with my friends at the ass crack of dawn."

"It's 11:30."

"Is it? Anyway, you didn't see him?" Avery opened the note and scanned the words quickly, turning back around again. "Never mind. False alarm."

* * *

_Meet me at central park. 8 o'clock tonight. I promise I'm not trying to murder you._

_-M_

* * *

Avery was nervous, although she tried not to let it show on her face. She had done everything in her power to cover up the bruise on her face, and succeeded for the most part, but it didn't stop the occasional person who passed by from shooing her an odd look until she glared at them hard enough that they turned away out of embarrassment.

She pulled her hair up into a bun, fingers nervously raking through the messy curls until they laid in a somewhat acceptable pattern.

She shouldn't be doing this.

She was here, however, and was debating back and forth with herself constantly about whether or not she should just cut and run and forget the whole thing with Matt ever happened. She would categorically and emphatically be lying to herself if she legitimately thought that was a possibility however, so she gave up and sat down on the park bench with a heavy sigh and continued to wait for Matt to show up.

"I didn't think you would come," He said, cane tapping as he walked towards her.

"I almost didn't." She stood up, smoothing her dress as she did, and walked the rest of the way over to him. "My friends are concerned. Rightfully so."

"I wanted to apologize about hitting you," Matt said, stopping in front of her with a smile on his face that made her think he was being absolutely genuine. Her gaze moved from his face, from the three day stubble and the red of his Elton John-esque glasses, down his neck to the suit he was wearing. Over his shoulder he had a leather satchel that looked fit to burst.

"You're dressed like an accountant."

"Lawyer, actually, well, baby lawyer, but thank you."

"Wasn't a compliment."

"I really am sorry about hitting you. If I had known it was you," He paused, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly and he stepped closer to her, holding his cane in both of his hands. "I'm sorry. I don't have an excuse."

"Maybe an inability to distinguish between friend or foe is an indicator that you should stick to your day job."

"Are we friends now?"

"It's a turn of phrase and you know it."

"I know, I was flirting with you," He said, causing her to choke ever so slightly on the spit in her mouth. She tried to cover it up by coughing, which only resulted in her making the embarrassing noise that much more prominent.

"Well, enough of that. I'm only here to talk business."

"Can I at least buy you an ice cream?" When she hesitated for a moment, he turned the charm up ever slightly and smiled at her even more. "Peace offering? Apology?"

"Bribe."

"I'm getting one for myself," He said, walking away from her and towards the small vendor, forcing her to follow after him with a scowl on her face. The squat man under the bright blue umbrella smiled as they approached. "Two, please."

"Nice evening?" The man asked, opening the small freezer on wheels.

"Could be better," Avery said pointedly, looking over at Matt despite the fact that she knew he couldn't see the expression on her face. She thought he would understand the tone, however.

"That look is never good, my friend," The vendor said to Matt, shaking his head with a knowing smile on his face. "Whenever my wife gives me that look, I always buy her a dozen roses."

"We aren't dating," Avery clarified, embarrassment at the whole situation deepening.

"It's a work in progress."

"3 dollars."

Matt handed over a five and told him to keep the change before he turned back to Avery, holding out the ice cream with a plying look on his face. She stared at it for a moment, very well aware of the man watching them closely, before she rolled her eyes and took it. "I still think you're a serial killer."

"This way," Matt said, gesturing in the opposite direction of the Stark Tower and towards Hell's Kitchen.

"Seriously Matt, this whole thing is stressing me out and Captain America doesn't approve, so you know there's got to be something to that, and I feel like I shouldn't have even been with Peter last night because I brought absolutely nothing to what we were trying to do and…"

"Do you do that often?"

"What?"

"Babble."

"Almost incessantly. That's not the point. I'm here because I need to know what's going on with you. Nothing more, nothing less." Matt didn't respond to her right away and she thought, for a moment, that she might have talked at him in such a way that he was stunned into silence. But then he turned and walked down a smaller path through Central Park, making her feel all kinds of squirrely as she followed after him. "Why did you tell that man that it was a work in progress? I agreed to a date under great duress. It doesn't count."

"So a friend of mine bribed a cop and learned a fascinating bit of information that I thought you might want to know about."

"Ethics don't count pre-bar exam?"

"Technically speaking, that's when they matter the most, but that's irrelevant." Matt took a bite of his ice cream, causing Avery to scowl at him even more. He noticed her lack of response and turned to her, eyebrows raised. "What?"

"Did you just take a bite of your ice cream?"

"Yes?"

"Only serial killers do that. You lick, otherwise there's some seriously horrible teeth feel happening."

"I like the teeth feel."

"Oh my god," Avery moaned, shaking her head in slight disgust. "You really are crazy."

Matt laughed and shook his head. "Do you want to know the information or not?"

"Yes, but only so that we can go our separate ways and never see each other again."

"That hurts, Avery. We have a date."

"Doesn't this count?" She said, voice finally not as angry as it had been before. "You did buy me food. We're walking alone. Classic date markers."

"You must have been on a lot of extremely underwhelming dates, then."

"A few, yeah." Avery ate a bit of her ice cream and looked around, spotting a nearby bench and escaping to it without telling him. Regardless, he followed after her and sat down next to her, putting his arm over the back of the bench and inched ever so slightly closer to her. "Now, come one, tell me why I'm here. I pissed off Steve on his birthday, you could at least go ahead and make that worth it."

"About two months ago Oscorp had a few bio samples go missing, but they didn't want it reported. It got leaked by an employee and the police attempted to investigate, but the higher ups shut down the investigation before it go any further."

"It wasn't me," Avery said, almost out of instinct.

"Funny you should mention that, because this morning that same cop said that Oscorp had another security anomaly last night."

"That might have been me, although I won't comment on it."

Matt smirked and leaned even closer to her. "I want to help you."

"In exchange for what?"

"An alibi."

"Did you kill someone?" Avery breathed, scooting back.

"What? No, why is that what you keep jumping to?"

"I have an overactive imagination," Avery said, collapsing back against the bench, the melting ice cream completely forgotten. "What do you need an alibi for?"

"I've been interning for Landman and Zack all summer and…"

"That conflicts with your new night time occupation," Avery finished, impressing herself, and him judging by the look on his face. "What kind of firm is it?"

"Corporate defense."

"So you really are the scum of the earth, you don't just pretend to be that at night."

"That's rude."

"You punched me in the face."

"You're not going to let me forget that are you?" Matt asked, sitting back against the bench as well, he tossed his ice cream wrapper in the trashcan next to his right arm and turned so that he was almost completely facing her. "Look, Avery, last night didn't go according to plan, but I'm not going to stop and I need an excuse to tell my roommate for why I don't go home at night."

"And some new, mysterious girl is the perfect excuse to not come home."

"A new, mysterious, _beautiful_ girl is the perfect excuse."

"Flattery won't work."

"The truth isn't flattery," Matt said, shrugging his shoulders. "That thing that brought you to Hell's Kitchen?"

"Avengers business."

"Is that what you guys are calling yourselves?"

"I didn't come up with it. Although I do like the sound of it. The Avengers," She said dramatically, puffing out her chest. "But, that thing that happened with Oscorp is strictly none of your beeswax."

"So I shouldn't tell the cop that I know who it was that messed with their system last night?"

"This is blackmail."

"This is a situation that we both benefit from," Matt paused, giving her a look that she couldn't quite understand. "I'm just guessing, but it seems to me like you were in Oscorp to try and get information about what happened the first time Oscorp. Now, you don't know what to do about finding them because New York is a big place and you're struggling to figure out how to proceed without telling the rest of your team that you and you're little sidekick broke in all to find out what you already know. Something was taken from Oscorp during the invasion and you don't even know how to begin to look for it."

"That was incredibly insightful. Creepily so, in fact."

"Am I wrong?"

"No." Although she was loathe to admit it. "How can you help?"

"Well, those samples are illegal biological material."

"And?"

"And, I know where it would go if someone is trying to get it out of New York."


	5. Chapter 5

Avery pulled her legs underneath her and continued sorting through the mountains of paperwork dropped off by Bambi just before eight, feeling herself becoming increasingly frustrated. Bambi had been kind enough to not say anything about the monster bruise on her face, but Avery knew everyone this side of Manhattan would hear of it by noon. She didn't even have time to get dressed, resulting in her less than professional practice of sorting through the work in nothing but her favorite pair of sleep shorts and ratty t-shirt. Mandu perched himself up on one of the numerous piles and watched her as she worked, clearly disturbed by both the early hour and the invasion into his personal space of all the paperwork.

"You would think that someone would have been paid to do this before," Avery mused, eyes perusing the file about relief work done in the former Czechoslovakia. "I mean, it is a multi-billion dollar company."

Mandu blinked.

"You're right, I shouldn't complain."

"Your demon spawn snuck into my lab while you were gone last night and peed." Avery tensed, shoulders popping up around her ears so fast she thought she felt something pull. She immediately held the paper up to her face and looked down, trying to think of a way to hide her face from Tony without it being too obvious. "Also, somebody dropped flowers off for you."

Avery turned the non-bruised side of her face towards him, eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"What are you doing?" Tony asked, closing the door behind him as he gestured to the paper still glued to the side of her face.

"Filing through osmosis."

"These flowers look expensive. Who did you have sex with and why wasn't I told?" Avery stared at him, mouth slightly agape. "I'm sorry. Good morning, when did you have time to meet someone?"

"Where was the accident?" Avery asked, turning her head ever so slightly and readjusting the paper so that it covered more of her face.

"In the corner. We made eye contact as it was happening. It was uncomfortable for all parties involved, but that isn't really important right now."

"I didn't sleep with anyone," Avery said, although she didn't quite understand why they were even having that conversation. "Not that it's any of your business."

Tony walked over to her bed and sat down, folding his arms over his chest as he looked at her side-long. She turned to the side and made a big show of sorting through the papers, probably messing up the meticulous work she had already done for only a moment of avoiding the inevitable. "Can I see the flowers?" She asked, holding out the hand that wasn't pressing the paper to her face, only to have them yanked away from her like the piece of cake. "Oh come on, it's too early for this."

"What the hell happened to you face?"

Avery blanched, realizing that in her effort to grab the flowers that she had let the paper slip. In hindsight, she wasn't proud of her reaction of immediately shoving her head under the bed just to avoid having him see her face, but she was committed at that point. "Nothing," She said, utterly mortified.

"Who hit you?"

"No one," She said out of reflex more than a desire to lie to him. "That's a lie. His name is Matt."

"I'm going to kill him," Tony said, tapping the side of her thigh with his foot. "Matt what?"

"I don't know."

"Was this when you were with Peter?"

"It's a long story and I have it completely handled, so if you could give me my flowers and leave me to my paperwork and cat and mortification now, I would appreciate it." Her voice was muffled by the bed, but she just couldn't bring herself to crawl out yet. For some reason, the shame she felt when she told Steve was magnified tenfold with Tony. With Steve, it was simply a peer telling her she made a mistake. She could ignore him. She couldn't ignore Tony, even if he wasn't hovering above her like a vulture waiting for the moment she dropped dead, she wouldn't be able to pretend like nothing was wrong. She felt him nudge her hip with his foot, prodding her in the playful way that she had come to expect from him despite how decidedly not playful the conversation currently was. "If it makes you feel better, Steve didn't approve either."

"Approve of what exactly?"

"Matt sent the flowers." She rested her chin on her hands and waited for the other shoe to drop. She thought she was technically too old for a scolding, especially from someone who had made just as many spectacularly bad life choices, but she still expected him to make the attempt. He was within the age category that it seemed almost natural, compulsive even.

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, somethings up."

"Something is always up, Tony."

"Stop being cute and answer the question." Avery rotated on her side as best she could and looked down at her legs, noticing that he had started bouncing his left leg up and down.

"I swear it's not as shady as it seems. He made a mistake and he apologized. I spoke to him yesterday and he apologized for it. I've got it under control."

"He says the dress is black tie," Tony said, holding the note down between his legs and waving it back and forth. "Can you come out please?"

"Really? Black tie? That's fancy."

"Who is this guy?"

"A lawyer from Hell's Kitchen."

"He's too old for you."

"Excuse me?" Hearing the judgmental tone in his voice, and not the sort that seemed to stem from the same source as Steve, she ooched out from under the bed and scowled at him.

"Or an asshole."

"Now you're just making shit up." She stood up and turned on her heel, marching towards her bathroom just to avoid looking at him at the moment. When she was halfway there, she turned around and snatched the flower card out of his hand and took it with her.

"A lawyer who is within your age category isn't making enough money to afford these kinds of flowers. So either he's old enough to spend money on his midlife crisis," He gestured to her a way that was less than flattering, causing Avery to scowl even more, before he continued. "Or, he's a trust fund baby who is just looking for someone to throw all his extra money at."

"Because it would be so crazy for someone to want to spend money they don't have on me."

"That's not what I said."

"It's what you meant."

"Why are you being so weird about this?"

"When you leave, could you make sure you don't mess with my filing system."

"Oh the filing system? You mean the random piles of crap? That filing system?"

"Um, it's your crap that I'm trying to sift through." Avery tried not to shout, but she couldn't stop herself after a moment. "If you're just going to act like Steve then you don't get to be in my bedroom."

"I paid for this bedroom."

That wasn't the other shoe that she had expected and it hurt like someone had punched a hole straight through her chest. Clenching the tube of mascara in her hand, she tried to compose herself for a moment. She toed the door closed and dropped the makeup, leaning back against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest, shoulders drooping. Perhaps he didn't mean it to come across like it had, but the feeling in her chest wouldn't cease even after she took three deep and supposedly calming breaths. "And Matt paid for those flowers. And whether it was with a trust fund, student loans, money from the mob, or profits from being a male escort, it's literally none of your business."

"Rogers is coming back this morning. It's good to know we finally agree on something."

"Congrats. I'm so happy that I can bring you two together." Avery closed her eyes and looked down at her feet, unable to keep the anger and hurt out of her voice. "You know what really cheeses me off? How you and Steve can act like I make all these terrible decisions, but then the moment either of you does something, you expect everyone to leave you alone and respect that."

"I'm no…"

"Like, Steve acts like I don't know why he's being all moody, which I totally do by the way, and you act like I don't know that you spend all your free time making new Iron Man suits, but I do. And both of you would get mad as hell if I tried to tell you how to live your life."

"You do, though. All the time actually. Whenever I called you on your little bullshit soul journey to east bumfuck New Mexico, you made it very clear what you thought about every little decision we made."

"That's not the point."

"No, the point is that you keep making shitty decisions."

"You don't know anything about this guy, you don't know why I'm going out with him, and you sure as hell don't know bunk about my decision making process." She stormed out of the bathroom and walked over to her closet to find clothes a bit more suitable for public. She yanked open the doors and grabbed the first dress she saw, completely unbothered by the fact that it tended to cause horrendous chaffing. A little bit of gold danced over her fingers, flashing for a moment before it traveled up her arms and disappeared. "When you called me in New Mexico all you talked about was the new things you were adding to your suits. The more powerful rockets, the little lasers that can cut through steel, the little thing you added to the crotch to make it more breathable, and I never said a word except to say that it sounded amazing."

"It is amazing."

"It's also unhealthy."

"How do you figure?" Tony asked, voice raising slightly.

"You told me about fourteen new suits in the last two months."

"It's not fourteen."

"It is. I counted, because I had nothing better to do." Avery turned around and tossed the dress onto her bed. "And Steve, he tries to act like he's not more traumatized by waking up 70 years in the future, but I can tell he is. Every time someone makes a joke he doesn't get or references a movie he hasn't seen, he feels that pain all over again. But he won't talk to me about it. He won't tell me what's wrong with him. Instead, he gets mad at me for saying yes to a date for the first time in six fucking years because that's an easier thing for him to take his anger out on." Avery snatched the flowers from Tony while he was distracted by her sudden ranting and tossed them on the bed next to her dress, too angry to admire the color or the fact that there were several roses in the mix. "These flowers are basically an act of extortion. They aren't because a guy didn't get freaked out in the first five minutes with me, or because he's having a midlife crisis and I'm just young and naïve enough to think he actually likes me, or because he's some douchebag with a trust fund. He asked me out because he needs an alibi and I need help."

"Avery, I can help you wi…" Tony started, but she cut him off with a glare.

"No, god, just don't. You're already paying for my room and board and salary, I don't need anything else from you. I'm sorry that me going on a date seems to be such problem for all of you, but I know what I'm doing."

* * *

Avery rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, already feeling stupid for thinking this dress was the right choice. It was black and backless and proved nothing besides the fact that she was probably too petty to be making her own decisions. Still, she had committed to it, and her date with Matt, and she couldn't back out. Still, she kept the tag tucked in under her armpit. She clenched her hands into fists as she waited for the cab, fighting off the now almost insatiable desire to run back to her room and hide under her covers and forget the fact that she hadn't spoken to anybody but Bruce in the three days since she stormed out of her room.

She wasn't proud of that, but Tony hadn't approached her to apologize, so she was standing her ground, even if that meant spending the last three days practically living out of her room and off granola bars just to avoid seeing him.

"You can do this, Aves," She said to herself, growing more nervous as she waited for the cab to pull up. "This is a business transaction. Forget about Tony and Steve and focus on what matters: not getting murdered tonight and holding up your end of the bargain."

Every time a yellow cab passed, her heart beat faster, threatening to burst from her chest. She thought, by the time Matt finally did step out of the car that she was libel to have a heart attack at any moment. Seeing him dressed in a black suit, complete with bowtie, made her heart beat even faster and she had to squeeze her hands together behind her back to keep them from shaking too bad.

"You look beautiful," He said, crossing the large sidewalk with a smile on his face.

"How can you tell?"

"I've heard a rumor that you're supposed to tell women that when taking them on a date, but my sources could be wrong on that."

"It's a black dress. With no back."

"Heels?"

"My ankles will be in danger all night."

"Then I'll be sure to catch you if you fall, if you haven't already." He smirked at her and she was thankful he couldn't see the wild blush that sprung up in her cheeks or the way she rolled her eyes.

"Should we go?"

"You mean before you spontaneously combust from blushing so hard?"

"Shut up. I'll go put on sweatpants, it won't bother me one bit."

"Don't be such a tease, Avery."

"Matt," She warned, looking down at the ground.

He placed a hand on her lower back and she thought he might have been right. She shook her head and reminded herself, once again, that it was a business transaction and nothing more, and allowed him to lead her over to the cab. "I like the backless."

"Thanks, I thought it would impress the lawyery types you work for."

He opened the door for her and held out his hand, helping her into the cab in the most charming way possible. He folded up his cane quickly and slid into the seat next to her, scooting just a bit closer than necessary. "You don't have to be so nervous."

"What would make you think I'm nervous?" The high tone of her voice did nothing to help her case. "I'm not. I just don't want you getting any ideas. The back isn't for you."

The cabbie looked over his shoulder, thick eyebrows raised.

Matt smirked and shook his head. "Are you always like this?"

"What?" She tore her gaze away from the back of the cabbie's head and looked over at him. "Devastatingly charming and unattainable?"

Matt smiled and leaned closer to her, invading her space in a way that made her feel his body heat. "Careful Avery, you might have me thinking this is a real date."

"Real date, my ass."

* * *

"You're going to have to hold my hand."

"What, no. It's probably clammy."

Avery shied away from him the moment they stepped out of the cab. Around them, people dressed in suits and dresses streamed into the building with an air of superiority that Avery didn't think she would ever be able to emulate. Despite her objections, he grabbed her hand and squeezed, smirking at her in a way that made her think he wanted to be here just about as much as she did.

"Matty, where have you…hello who is this lovely creature?"

"Foggy." Matt turned to the blond man fast approaching them, holding her hand in a vice-like grip to keep her from backing away.

"So she is real."

"Are any of us, really?"

"And funny." He brushed his hair back from his face and smiled at her, extending his hand out to shake hers. "Hello, Foggy Nelson, almost attorney at law, best friend of Matt, single if you find him intolerable after tonight."

"Avery Gudrun."

"Gudrun? What is that, it sounds exotic and exciting." Matt squeezed her hand again.

"Scandinavian of some kind."

"You do look Swedish. Is it Swedish?"

"Wow, okay. I think I need a drink," Matt said, cutting across Foggy before he could continue berating her.

"Or two."

Avery would have turned right back around if not for Matt's hand wrapped around hers. She was right that it was clammy, but she didn't hate the fact that he offered it so willingly, even if it was just for show. The banquet room was practically filled to the brim with people who clearly knew each other, laughing at jokes she probably wouldn't understand and drinking alcohol that was worth more than her entire life's savings. Matt, clearly sensing her immediate discomfort, asked her to lead them to the open bar and promptly ordered. Avery, doing the one thing her mom had always told her not to, downed the drink in one gulp. Foggy smirked at her and clapped Matt on the back as he ordered his own drink, preferring something a little fruitier than the straight shots.

"How long do we have to stay? For appearances?" Avery asked, forced to lean over and whisper in his ear so that Foggy wouldn't overhear them.

"An hour, at most."

"Promise?" She asked, fighting the urge to reach over and grab his drink as well. "This is giving me hives."

"Oh, that's romantic." Foggy leaned against the bar and propped his head up on his hand, staring at her. "Hey, Avery, maybe you could answer some things for me, since Matt doesn't seem to know much of anything about you."

"What do you want to know?"

"All the dirty details, of course. Who are you, are your looks genetic and do you have a sister, where are you from, what did he bribe you with to come on this date, an…"

"Foggy, let her breathe." Matt shook his head and took a small sip of his drink, removing his hand from Avery's so that he could place it on the bar behind her. "You can ignore him."

"It's fine. He's your friend, he's probably just surprised that you're on a date."

"I will be honest, it is a bit of a shock."

"And where is your date for tonight?"

"Ah, buddy, you've already met my left hand."

"You're a lefty? I thought your handshake was a little weak. That might explain it," Avery couldn't resist the softball he had lobbed in her direction. For a moment, she was afraid that she might have crossed the line, but then Foggy and Matt started laughing, genuinely and without even a hint of mockery, and she felt the knot that had formed in her chest from the moment they stepped inside lessen ever so slightly. "To answer only the questions I'm allowed to by Big Brother, my name is Avery, I'm from New Mexico, I have no brothers or sisters that I know of, and the only bribe offered to me was a bit of ice cream and the promise of more in the future. And the opportunity to meet you of course."

Matt quirked his head to the side and she couldn't help but notice the slight smile playing on his lips. His hand moved from the back of the bar and brushed against the skin of her back, fingers so light she almost didn't feel it before he pulled it back and acted as if nothing had happened.

"Come on, we should meet the partners."

"So we can leave."

"So we can leave about an hour from now," Matt said, setting his drink down on the bar. "Foggy, I will catch you later."

"Wait, I wasn't finished charming your new boo."

"She's a boo in progress, and if I let you keep interrogating her, she'll break up with me forever and never come back."

Avery waited until they were a few steps away before she rounded on him. "This is not a real date, bud."

"It's only been ten minutes. You don't know that for sure."

"Plus the cab ride."

"You're right. A cab ride. That's a real commitment."

"Look, I can tell that this usually works for most women," Avery paused, stopping them in the middle of the throngs of mingling people so that she could turn and look at him. "But this is a business transaction."

"Is that your buzz word for the evening?" He asked, leaning close to speak in her ear. "This is the prologue, Avery."

"Oh god, please tell me you didn't put in actual effort? After tonight, I'm a ghost. A figment of your imagination, only to be used when you need to ineffectively stop crime and punch defenseless women for a few hours."

"Defenseless? I seem to remember you holding your own pretty well."

"I am pretty great, especially at combat maneuvers and similar things of the like."

"And so knowledgeable," Matt said, leaning even closer until she had a hard time forming a coherent thought.

"So these partners."

"These partners." Matt leaned back, although he stood decidedly closer than he had before. Avery tried not to feel slightly giddy about that.

Business transaction. She touched the side of her face, pressing her finger against the makeup caked bruise, to remind herself why she was there, and steeled herself to meet the partners, making sure to put a little bit of space between them as they started walking again, hand in hand.

* * *

"If you had told me part two of this would involve climbing over roof tops in heels, I would have said no." Matt peered over the top of the roof and held his hand down to help her climb up the last of the rickety ladder rungs. Her heels dangled precariously and she was sure if she looked down she might see more than a few alley dwellers enjoying the free show up her dress. She gave up trying to hold it down by about the sixth time it blew up, deciding that focusing on not falling off and breaking her neck was a little more important than her modesty. She wrapped her hand in his and breathed a little easier when she was able to crawl over the top of the roof. "Some of us are wearing death heels, if you'll recall."

"Maybe it was part of my plan to get you to fall for me," He said, pulling off his suit jacket and placing it on her shoulders, despite the fact that she didn't ask. It smelled like him, a fact she immediately pushed away, and instantly warmed up her freezing skin. "And I happened to like those heels."

"Is the sound alluring?"

"More than you will ever know."

"Stop it."

"I simply state the truth."

"Well, they're officially coming off, sorry to burst your bubble." She tried not to let out a sound of stupid excitement when she was able to toe them off and kick them aside. She walked away from him and over to the edge of the roof, pulling the jacket tighter around her shoulders as she walked over to the other side of the roof. "So what's the deal? Why are we here?"

"This is the best make out spot in Hell's Kitchen, didn't you know."

"I must have missed that memo."

He moved to stand next to her and mirrored her posture, folding his arms over his chest. "In reality, I wanted to show what I found out."

"Yeah?"

"This is, as you keep pointing out, a business transaction, so here's my consideration." He touched her shoulder and pointed with the other hand. "You see the light over there?"

"Everything the light touches, and all that jazz?" Avery asked, unable to stop herself.

"The Kingdom of Hell's Kitchen," Matt said, playing along. She couldn't help but smile.

"What's that shadowy place?"

"New Jersey, you should never go there."

"Yes, I see it," Avery said, wondering how he knew it was there, but deciding it was probably better not to ask.

"I've been doing some asking around and it turns out that there's quite a bit of smuggling that goes in and out."

"Including genetic material?"

"If there's a buyer, there's going to be someone selling it."

"And that's the place to get it." Avery leaned forward just a little bit, staring at the dock. "That looks like it's full of criminals and guns and drugs."

"And drugs? Say it isn't so."

"Matt," She said, unable to keep the laugh out of her voice. "Thank you."

"You sound surprised," He said, bumping her with his arm.

"No, I mean yes, but I had kind of a crappy week leading up to this and it was surprisingly a lot more fun than I was anticipating. And you held up your end of the bargain. That's so refreshingly rare and exciting."They stood in silence for a moment and Avery could see, for the moment they were standing there, why Mat insisted spending so much time running around on the rooftops. Even though she could see where he couldn't, the feel of the wind and the sound of life beneath there feet relaxed her to the point of almost exhaustion. "None of my friends like that I'm out with you tonight and I kind of acted like an ass about it, so this was really nice, even if it wasn't because you're actually interested in me."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Do you want to make out?" Avery laughed and shook her head, taking half a step closer to him. "And who said I wasn't actually interested?"

"Were you?" Avery looked over at him, biting her lip as a sudden wave of anxiety washed over her. "Are you?"

"Now, you're going to have to go on date number two to find that out."

"Number three."

"Right, the ice cream."

"The ice cream. I was serious about wanting more, by the way. If I'm going to be spending money on nice dresses to be an alibi, the least you could do it shell out some cash for a few cookie cones."

"Deal."


End file.
